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Google Translate for Animals, a new Android app. [more inside]
posted by memebake at 11:43 PM PST - 36 comments

Open source April 1st: Lunixkcd.
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 11:18 PM PST - 65 comments

Are you prepared for today? How do you tell the real from the surreal today?
posted by Xurando at 11:17 PM PST - 12 comments

The last mouse pad you will ever need. [via mefi projects] [more inside]
posted by WolfDaddy at 10:21 PM PST - 66 comments

You might have noticed his work in the collection of Windows 7 sample media, alongside a koala, penguins and a jellyfish, a piano tune and a version of Debussy's "Maid with the Flaxen Hair", or maybe his ditties got you tapping your toes in a video game. Perhaps you met him at his tea shop in Manchester (Google Streetview), home to his own line of organic teas. Maybe you know him for his marathon mixsets, running four, five, six, or almost seven hour long. You might know him as Andy Carthy, but it's a bit more likely you've already heard something of Mr. Scruff. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 10:21 PM PST - 14 comments

Dad is gonna be pissed!
posted by HuronBob at 10:14 PM PST - 8 comments

Backstage with the Audio of Guitar Hero 5: The Guitar Hero series of games has attracted the attention of the audiophile set before, with one prominent sound engineer even claiming that the Guitar Hero version of Metallica's Death Magnetic is measurably superior to the version the group released through it's label. Well, if you've ever wondered how it's done, here's a detailed explanation from one of the guys who does it. [more inside]
posted by saulgoodman at 8:36 PM PST - 21 comments

For April Fool's Day, Wired's Game|Life goes over some of the meanest tricks games have done to their players. (note: spoilers)
posted by flatluigi at 6:56 PM PST - 63 comments

Apparently, a lot of the custom maps for the Half-Life 1 mod Action Half-Life (download links here), especially those done by enigmatic mapper Hondo, had enormous hidden areas that in some cases dwarfed the actual level. Rock Paper Shotgun has a NGJ-style account of an effort by a group of people to unlock the secrets of one of Hondo's most infamous maps: AHL_5AM.
posted by Pope Guilty at 6:34 PM PST - 48 comments

I Can Hold My Breath Forever. [Flash]
posted by Smart Dalek at 5:24 PM PST - 12 comments

Guitar legend Les Paul once said of the good humored, generally accessible guitar great Herb Ellis "If you're not swinging, he's gonna make you swing. Of the whole bunch of guys who play hollow-body guitar... I think Herb Ellis has got the most drive." R.I.P to the smooth player, and sometime standards composer, who was pianist Oscar Peterson's "rhythm section" from 1953 to 1958, dead of Alzheimer's, at 88.
posted by paulsc at 4:58 PM PST - 18 comments

How to Meditate in the NYC Subway System: The Interdependence Project brings a combination of "meditation, performance art, and activism" to the tunnel between Times Square/42nd Street and the Port Authority Bus Terminal. Last year's Sit Down, Rise Up event involved a 24 hour meditation marathon in display windows at 19th and Broadway. (via The Worst Horse)
posted by desjardins at 4:46 PM PST - 25 comments

Exploring an Abandoned Hotel in Southern California [via mefi projects]
posted by dunkadunc at 4:17 PM PST - 65 comments

Emmy winning The Wire writer David Mills has died. [more inside]
posted by axiom at 3:35 PM PST - 106 comments

Declassified secrets about the top-secret U.S. military base Area 51 revealed: Great food, cash-stuffed briefcases, no UFOs.
posted by Chinese Jet Pilot at 2:57 PM PST - 43 comments

Taberinos is a flash game where you bounce a puck off lines to remove them.
posted by klangklangston at 1:49 PM PST - 16 comments

The stereotype of people who play a lot of videogames is that they're mostly guys who can't get a good-looking woman to talk to them unless they're paid to do so. GameCrush is not assisting in the refutation of that stereotype. [more inside]
posted by Halloween Jack at 1:47 PM PST - 60 comments

Earlier this month, there was an entertaining debate in the House of Lords about pest control in the Palace of Westminister, where the Lords meet. via kottke.org [more inside]
posted by cider at 1:44 PM PST - 13 comments

If you're Jay Z, you have an Empire State of Mind. If you're Darth Vader? Best appreciated by watching the videos in order.
posted by lazaruslong at 1:11 PM PST - 21 comments

Followup to this post: A US District Court has ruled that Myriad Genetic's patents on breast cancer genes BRCA1 and BRCA2, which allow them to hold exclusive rights to a widely used genetic test for inherited breast and ovarian cancer susceptibility, are invalid. Genomics Law Report analyzes the ruling in two posts. The decision is likely to be challenged in a legal appeal — but if upheld, it could have huge implications for the biotechnology industry. [more inside]
posted by zarq at 12:53 PM PST - 50 comments

In recent years though, more biologists have been looking objectively at same-sex sexuality in animals — approaching it as real science. For Young, the existence of so many female-female albatross pairs disproved assumptions that she didn’t even realize she’d been making and, in the process, raised a chain of progressively more complicated questions.' 'A Denver-based publication for gay parents welcomed any and all new readers from “the extensive lesbian albatross parent community.” The conservative Oklahoma senator Tom Coburn highlighted Young’s paper on his Web site, under the heading “Your Tax Dollars at Work,” even though her study of the female-female pairs was not actually federally financed.' [more inside]
posted by VikingSword at 12:42 PM PST - 28 comments

"Philip is leagues beyond being your not-so-basic tastemaker, lifestylist or creative maverick... the clue lies in the fact that he likes the mirrors on his head and not just in front of his own face.”
posted by oinopaponton at 11:37 AM PST - 19 comments

"Some enjoyed sex but worried that they shouldn't. One slept apart from her husband 'to avoid temptation of too frequent intercourse.' " Standford Magazine on the accidental discovery of an unpublished sex survey of American women made 55 years before Kinsey . (via)
posted by The Whelk at 11:07 AM PST - 49 comments

Don't say "poor wittle jaw." It's probably BROKEN. The Shocking Truth About 'OMG Cat' theorizes that a lot of cute cat videos might actually be painful for the cat (posted at The Awl). [more inside]
posted by The Devil Tesla at 11:02 AM PST - 81 comments

Touring the festival circuit is Steven Soderbergh's documentary "And Everything Is Going Fine", about the life of Spalding Gray. So far, the reviews have been positive. Spalding Gray was ... [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 10:18 AM PST - 26 comments

160 Greatest Arnold Schwarzenegger Quotes (SLYT)
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 9:31 AM PST - 74 comments

The Malaysia Design Archive: Understanding Malaysian history through Graphic Design. "This project is an attempt to trace, map and document the development of graphic design in Malaysia. It is also a project to highlight the importance of archiving as a way to protect and preserve our own visual history. What is our design history? Do we have one?" Examine Malaysian movie posters; discover the visual detritus of an old jail; peruse political artifacts; explore the country's visual history from Colonialism, through Occupation, Emergency, and finally, Independence. [via DO]
posted by ocherdraco at 9:15 AM PST - 4 comments

Bento comics, bite sized comics mixed and matched to order.
posted by Artw at 9:14 AM PST - 8 comments

Heaven All Day, a minimalist but evocative long-form comic. [via mefi projects]
posted by killdevil at 8:12 AM PST - 18 comments

'Stand and Deliver' teacher dies of cancer. Jaime Escalante, the math teacher portrayed in the 1988 film "Stand and Deliver," died Tuesday after a battle with cancer, according to the actor who played him. ... "Stand and Deliver" told the inspirational story of how Escalante turned the failing calculus program at Garfield High School in east Los Angeles into one of the top in the nation. (previously)
posted by sentient at 8:00 AM PST - 55 comments

Dönermania! While US citizens know the Döner under its Greek name "gyros", Canadians refer to it as donair. And in its country of birth, Germany, it is much more than late night drunk fodder: it is breakfast, lunch and solid dinner rollled into one. "The döner kebab trade may be worth 2.5 billion euros in Germany, but before last weekend, Germany's favorite fast food had never been honored with its own convention", reports Der Spiegel. " The star of the show? A remote-controlled döner robot." [more inside]
posted by Omnomnom at 7:31 AM PST - 104 comments

“The quality of licensed imagery is virtually indistinguishable now from the quality of images they might commission,” Mr. Klein said. Yet “the price point that the client, or customer, is charged is a fraction of the price point which they would pay for a professional image.” The NYT on the demise of news photography in the age of the long tail.
posted by sagwalla at 7:02 AM PST - 38 comments

The Dark Side of the Moon, arranged for the Nintendo Entertainment System
posted by Bugbread at 1:01 AM PST - 66 comments

Recently, Paul Krugman has been advocating for US trade protectionism to counter China's apparent undervaluation of renminbi. Peking University Economics professor Yiping Huang disagrees.
posted by jjray at 11:03 PM PST - 46 comments

How I'd hack your password is a good introduction to how easy it is to compromise a weak password. What's a weak password? Anything among the top 20 passwords revealed among the thirty million users of RockYou is a good start ("123456" is #1). Or you can look at the 500 worst passwords as drawn by Kate Bingaman-Burt based on a list by security expert Mark Burnett. An analysis of password cracking software tells you what to avoid when trying to generate a strong password, but you can follow these techniques, or give up all together.
posted by blahblahblah at 9:08 PM PST - 126 comments

"The laws are intended to make people fearful," Pearce said. The Arizona Senate passed SB 1097 (PDF) on Monday which, if signed by the governor, will require school districts to collect information on how many of its students are in the country illegally and report this information to the governor. This bill is seen by some as a first step in challenging Plyer v. Doe.
posted by nestor_makhno at 8:41 PM PST - 57 comments

In the unusual talent department, a recent episode of Pilipinas Got Talent featured a not-to-be-missed performance of Banal Na Aso Santong Kabayo by Big Mouth. [more inside]
posted by madamjujujive at 8:33 PM PST - 40 comments

The developers of erotic game maker Cross Days use DRM to humiliate would-be pirates
posted by Rory Marinich at 8:30 PM PST - 35 comments

Ratbehavior.org, a staggeringly comprehensive rat information source. [more inside]
posted by StrikeTheViol at 7:00 PM PST - 17 comments

Kung Faux*, the most widely broadcast show you've never heard of. (*Audio Warning) [more inside]
posted by P.o.B. at 6:27 PM PST - 7 comments

It's a charter school. It's a nightclub. Charter school? Nightclub!
posted by fixedgear at 5:41 PM PST - 37 comments

James Lovelock, 90, says we're too stupid to prevent climate change. "I don't think we're yet evolved to the point where we're clever enough to handle a complex a situation as climate change." One of the main obstructions to meaningful action is "modern democracy", he added in an extended interview. "I have a feeling that climate change may be an issue as severe as a war. It may be necessary to put democracy on hold for a while." He thinks only a catastrophic event would now persuade humanity to take the threat of climate change seriously enough, such as the collapse of a giant glacier in Antarctica.
posted by stbalbach at 5:18 PM PST - 77 comments

Good to the Last Seder: "The Jews are known as the people of the Book, and that book, which has sustained them is... the Maxwell House Haggadah." The brainchild of the Joseph Jacobs Advertising firm, Maxwell House Coffee has provided copies of the haggadah for Jewish-American coffee purchasers celebrating the Passover Seder since 1934, a fact that led one rabbi to claim that the coffee company "did more to codify Jewish liturgy than any force in history." Although the Maxwell House Haggadah has received criticism from both secular and religious Jews, the haggadah is still so ubiquitous that it has even surfaced at the official Obama seder at the White House
posted by jonp72 at 4:23 PM PST - 25 comments

The Democrats Are Doomed, or How A ‘Big Tent’ Can Be Too Big [more inside]
posted by kylej at 2:20 PM PST - 99 comments

Featuring Nellie McKay, Cyndi Lauper, Tori Amos, Martha Wainwright, Steve Earle, Annie Clark (St. Vincent), Kate Pierson (of the B-52s) and many others, Here Lies Love is the result of a recent collaboration between David Byrne and Fatboy Slim. 22-tracks long, it tells the story of the Iron Butterfly, aka Imelda Marcos, first lady of the Philippines, and her relationship with her childhood servant Estrella Cumpas. Its official release is April 6th, but until then you can listen to the whole thing on NPR Music. The double-disc set will also feature a 120 page booklet and a DVD of historical footage. [more inside]
posted by Lutoslawski at 2:20 PM PST - 15 comments

[NSFWish] In this GlobalPost investigative report, Prague correspondent Iva Skoch gained rare access to one of Eastern Europe’s most secretive industries, uncovering a world where shifting human sexuality meets rampant commercial demand..In this multimedia report, we examine the complex and interlocking pieces of Prague’s booming gay porn business, from its roots in an American entrepreneur, to the cultural, moral and political foundations that make Prague a gay porn capital, as well as the economic necessities that drive many into the industry, and finally, the human toll it takes on workers.
posted by andoatnp at 2:19 PM PST - 12 comments

9 Teenagers Charged After Classmate's Suicide. In April 2009, an 11 year old in Springfield, MA killed himself after enduring relentless anti-gay bullying. In January of this year, Phoebe Prince--a recent immigrant from rural Ireland to South Hadley, MA--killed herself after months of harassment from her high school classmates. And now, 10 days after the Massachusetts House of Representatives unanimously passed an anti-bullying bill, 9 teenagers have been charged in Prince's death.
posted by availablelight at 2:12 PM PST - 179 comments

Troels Gravesen shows how to make your own loudspeakers. via
posted by klangklangston at 1:30 PM PST - 16 comments

Described as a "well known scenster" in L.A. from the '70's, Art Fein long had a bizzare cable-access show with top musicians. Amongst his other accomplishmentsArt has managed the Cramps, produced the Blasters, but he is best known for his legendary cable access show where he has had dozens of great guests. [more inside]
posted by Ironmouth at 12:41 PM PST - 7 comments

Recent troubles with Muslim women's clothes have lead to the Quebec Government to begin proposing legislation on the issue of face covering and access to public services. The niqab has become a central symbol in the anti-muslim rhetoric of nationalist parties in Europe (political poster examples: France, Switzerland, and Britain) about the threat Islam poses to tolerant secular societies. [more inside]
posted by ServSci at 12:20 PM PST - 153 comments

The Long. Strange. Never-Boring Journey of a National Treasure. Andrew Corsello has a William Shatner interview experience.
posted by The Mouthchew at 11:36 AM PST - 47 comments

Citing security concerns, Sony has decided to release a firmware update that will disable the "OtherOS" feature on its older (non-slim) PlayStation 3 systems. This is almost certainly a response to the system finally being hacked two months ago by George "GeoHot" Hotz. To counter Sony's disabling of the feature, Hotz, who previously stated that he would not be releasing custom firmware for the PS3, now plans to do so: "The PlayStation 3 is the only product I know that loses features throughout its lifecycle. Software PS2 emulation, SACD playback, and OtherOS support are all just software switches you can flip. It's unbelievable you would go and flip one, not just on new boxes you are shipping, but on tens of millions already in the field."
posted by Who_Am_I at 10:38 AM PST - 126 comments

The fine collection of curious sound objects [via]
posted by Ogre Lawless at 10:08 AM PST - 3 comments

Raj Patel is not the saviour, but try telling some people that. [more inside]
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:25 AM PST - 47 comments

Tomorrow the U.S. Supreme Court hears oral argument in a case that has gotten very little media coverage, on whether a private person protected by a restraining order may bring a criminal contempt action to enforce the order. The petitioner pled guilty to beating the respondent, on the condition that he not be prosecuted for a second beating inflicted after she obtained a restraining order. The respondent brought her own criminal action for contempt for the second beating, and the petitioner received more jail time. He asserts, however, that he has a due process right to be prosecuted by the government, rather than a private person. [more inside]
posted by bearwife at 9:25 AM PST - 41 comments

Barack Obama Looks at Awesome Things. Way better than A History of Obama Feigning Interest in Mundane Things.
posted by oneirodynia at 8:58 AM PST - 49 comments

Pour en finir avec le jugement de Dieu The completely insane and dying Antonin Artaud's last public performance, a radio show which wasn't broadcast for 30 years thereafter. English translation here.
posted by Wolof at 6:09 AM PST - 24 comments

"People who use sows to hunt for truffles often find it hard to prevent a sex-crazed animal from eating the truffle she has found and may lose fingers in the attempt." (via) The NYT on decoding the genome of the Périgord Black Truffle . Attempts to make truffles cheaper and more accessible in the past have been met with some resistance.
posted by The Whelk at 5:48 AM PST - 31 comments

Scarface school play... the shock value / hilarity is only slightly tempered by the rumour that it is actually by Jonas Åkerlund, director of numerous music video including one recent effort you might just have seen before.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 5:05 AM PST - 29 comments

How airplanes are repossessed. The rule is ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell—just get our airplane back.
posted by allkindsoftime at 4:46 AM PST - 34 comments

The Large Hadron Collider is attempting to collide protons at 14 TeV today, and they're livestreaming and tweeting about it. They've had some delays, and mostly you hear people milling about, (press conference from Japan right now) but it's ramping up as we speak, so go check it out! If it's not a dud, it could be historical.
posted by monocultured at 3:22 AM PST - 113 comments

At this Year's National Bike Summit, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood had a few words for the crowd. A week later he blogged about it and announced a major policy revision. [more inside]
posted by billyfleetwood at 12:01 AM PST - 77 comments

Travelogue of Havana, Cuba in the 1930s. Posted to YouTube by the great Travel Film Archive (previously), apparently filmed by André de la Varre, an associate of Burton Holmes (previously).
posted by jjray at 10:50 PM PST - 6 comments

Back to the Hugos is a series by Sam Jordison of the Guardian Books blog where he reads and reviews old Hugo Award winners. He was once skeptical of the literary quality of science fiction but then started to examine the validity of the critical orthodoxy and is now a firm convert, as this review of The Man in the High Casle demonstrates, and now even goes to science fiction events. Among the other books he's covered so far are A Case of Conscience by James Blish, Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner and the latest review is of The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin. It's not all sunshine and roses though, The Big Time and The Wanderer by Fritz Leiber don't appeal to him and the dreadfulness of They'd Rather Be Right by Mark Clifton and Frank Riley makes Jordison doubt the value of democracy, at least when it comes to selecting litearary award winners.
posted by Kattullus at 10:42 PM PST - 40 comments

Alan Moore, the Northampton Wizard, as you've never seen him before - SLYT, Spanish with subtitles.
posted by Artw at 10:06 PM PST - 29 comments

The Hypothetical Library , a part-time book cover designer collaborates with a wide range of amazing, contemporary writers on a project outside of their normal body of work.
posted by Confess, Fletch at 9:30 PM PST - 7 comments

Sam Harris's talk on morality at TED has sparked a debate on whether science can have anything to say about moral problems. Harris, a prominent author and outspoken atheist, makes the politically incorrect assertion that there are right and wrong answers to questions of morality (as opposed to the concept of moral relativism), and that the methods of science can be used to determine them. [more inside]
posted by knave at 8:32 PM PST - 161 comments

My brother found this deer alone and malnourished when it was a tiny baby. My family bottle fed the baby, named Theen, until he was eating grass. Several months later he's very socialized with people, our black lab, and our cats. He is free to wander if he likes and we've seen him with several herds of whitetail and axis deer. Apparently he fits in just fine with them. He frequently comes back to the house to eat some catfood and play with our dog, Buddy. He doesn't care much for deer corn. One dog. One deer. One ball.
posted by lazaruslong at 7:31 PM PST - 54 comments

Our Solar System as Music Box. Speed it up to hurry pluto along, or slow it down to make it a sweet lullaby to contemplate the heavens with.
posted by snsranch at 6:53 PM PST - 38 comments

What you need are photos of Michael Buble Being Stalked By A Velociraptor.
posted by The Devil Tesla at 6:49 PM PST - 73 comments

The physics of Mothra
posted by elephantday at 5:56 PM PST - 28 comments

Steampunk Wheelchair. via
posted by By The Grace of God at 4:53 PM PST - 24 comments

Always Split Test (Even if you’re a bum): A marketing experiment to benefit the homeless, or a homeless experiment to benefit a marketer? Online marketing blogger "Brian" puts his talent to work by making a better sign for a homeless man.
posted by circular at 4:42 PM PST - 88 comments

Researchers at MIT's Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences have identified two "morality centers" of the brain. In two separate experiments, they have shown a correlation between a particular part of the brain and the ability to make moral jusgments related to intent to commit a crime. In one experiment, patients with brain damage in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex of the brain don't consider hypothetical perpetrators to be morally responsible for their actions. In another experiment (noted on NPR today) the researchers showed that they could switch off the moral judgment function by applying a magnetic field to the right temporoparietal junction (TPJ) of the brain. The TPJ has also been implicated in "out of body experiences", both in cases of brain damage and by artificially stimulating the area.
posted by darkstar at 4:41 PM PST - 32 comments

In honor of what would have been the Man in Black's 78th birthday last Friday, Flavorwire presents 78 Things You [Probably —Ed.] Didn't Know About Johnny Cash. Number 14: During his act in the 1950s, Cash flaunted a killer Elvis impersonation. Number 36: An ostrich attack in 1983 left Cash with five broken ribs and internal bleeding. [more inside]
posted by ocherdraco at 4:33 PM PST - 22 comments

Escher Circuits. What if you could compute the output of complex algorithms just by viewing an image?

Our everyday visual perceptions rely upon unfathomably complex computations carried out by tens of billions of neurons across over half our cortex. In spite of this, it does not “feel” like work to see. Our cognitive powers are, in stark contrast, “slow and painful,” and we have great trouble with embarrassingly simple logic tasks. Might it be possible to harness our visual computational powers for other tasks, perhaps for tasks cognition finds difficult? I have recently begun such a research program with the goal of devising ways of converting digital logic circuits into visual stimuli – “visual circuits” – which, when presented to the eye, “tricks” the visual system into carrying out the digital logic computation and generating a perception that amounts to the “output” of the computation. That is, the technique amounts to turning our visual system into a programmable computer.

posted by scalefree at 2:57 PM PST - 56 comments

What's the matter with Sweden? How public funding for the arts has turned countries like Sweden into Meccas for indie music.
posted by dunkadunc at 2:57 PM PST - 41 comments

Ricky Martin is a fortunate homosexual man.
posted by greekphilosophy at 1:42 PM PST - 216 comments

Is your breakfast giving you cancer? "Chances are, you started your day with a generous helping of folic acid. For more than a decade, the government has required enriched grains — most notably white flour and white rice — to be fortified with folic acid, the synthetic form of the B vitamin folate. Many food manufacturers take it further, giving breakfast cereals, nutrition bars, and beverages a folic acid boost, too. Yet, historic reviews have linked too much folic acid to an increased cancer rate. [more inside]
posted by VikingSword at 1:38 PM PST - 62 comments

Thinking of getting an iPhone? There is an alternative, you know. It's a bit complicated, but this video will help you understand how to use it. (SLYT)
posted by grumblebee at 1:37 PM PST - 58 comments

In the loosely related fields of planetary science and apocalyptic fiction, the phrase “minimum orbit intersection distance,” or MOID, describes the closest point of contact between the paths of two orbiting objects. Most vividly invoked whenever an asteroid encroaches on our corner of the solar system, that bit of jargon also has its aesthetic uses. Consider the coordinates of Neil Young and Miles Davis on the evenings of March 6 and 7, 1970, at the juncture of East Sixth Street and Second Avenue in Manhattan.

Mapping the intersections of Miles Davis and Neil Young.
posted by shakespeherian at 1:24 PM PST - 21 comments

There are five great permanent tidal whirlpools in the world: off of Maine, the Old Sow Whirlpool has supposedly sunk ships; Japan's Naruto Whirlpools can be seen from space; Corryvreckan, off of Scotland, is the third largest; next is the original Maelstrom in Norway, which inspired Poe's story; and the most powerful of all is the Norse Saltstraumen [video]. All of these pale in comparison to the whirlpool formed in 1980 on Lake Peigneur in Louisiana, where a drilling rig penetrated a salt mine under the lake and 3.5 billion gallons of water drained away in three hours through a swirling vortex, as can be seen in this documentary excerpt.
posted by blahblahblah at 1:13 PM PST - 24 comments

Is Thailand Falling Apart?
The Battle for Thailand is ongoing and pragmatism has given way to dogmatic intransigence. In february talk of the next coup was raising political temperature; with rural Thailand simmering with anti-government rage.; and so Thailand’s Red shirted protesters went ahead with a Blood protest rally.
posted by adamvasco at 12:59 PM PST - 27 comments

Leaked CIA Report: "Public Apathy Enables Leaders To Ignore Voters" (pdf / Scribed link here) outlines possible public relations / propaganda strategies to shore up public support in Germany and France for a continued war in Afghanistan.
posted by zarq at 12:58 PM PST - 18 comments

Once Upon A Time In Norway (MLYT). An oral history of the early days of Black Metal. (via) [more inside]
posted by Potomac Avenue at 12:44 PM PST - 13 comments

Major League Baseball's opening day is less than a week away, so here are some videos to whet your appetite:
The shot heard 'round the world/The Giants Win the Pennant!
Bill Mazeroski's walk-off home run, 1960 World Series
Hank Aaron hits home run number 715
Carlton Fisk waves it fair
Willie Mays: "The Catch." [more inside]
posted by starman at 12:00 PM PST - 63 comments

“Toronto Critics Praise Egoyan Stinker” blares the headline at Onion manqué URNews. They’re talking about Chloe (IMDB; official site), the new film by Canadian cinéaste Atom Egoyan that opened on 2,400 fewer U.S. screens than Hot Tub Time Machine. Critics are focussing on how Toronto plays itself for once – in the Globe and Mail, the irascible Liam Lacey panned the picture, then talked mostly about buildings and settings. Architecture porn... or lesbian porn? “Chloe turns from quiet family drama to loudly awful erotic thriller” is one gloss, but let’s let Choire Sicha adjudicate: “There is no less crude way to put this. Julianne Moore can act with her bosom.… The movie of course ends in absolute hysterics. Charles Busch couldn’t have plotted it better were he writing a sequel to Vampire Lesbians of Sodom.” [more inside]
posted by joeclark at 9:33 AM PST - 130 comments

Sure, you've heard that the Discovery channel's parent company will give Sarah Palin a show on The Learning Channel, but did you know that Levi's pitching an Alaska-based reality show called "Levi Johnston's Last Frontier?" Meanwhile, Bristol is going to appear on ABC Family as herself.
posted by mccarty.tim at 8:15 AM PST - 141 comments

Being looked upon as feebleminded is something I have been forced to endure my entire life. What an extremely difficult hole to have to climb out of, to fight for your own intelligence.
posted by ExitPursuedByBear at 7:46 AM PST - 39 comments

"Ian Huntley gets his own jacuzzi and a gym in jail" - SLYT song about everyone's favourite middle-market British tabloid. (via lmg)
posted by roofus at 7:35 AM PST - 21 comments

Seven are arrested in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana in FBI raids linked to Christian militia group Hutaree, an extremist antigovernment group whose members are "preparing for the end time battles to keep the testimony of Jesus Christ alive", after threats to Islamic organisations.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 5:33 AM PST - 200 comments

I penned the suckiest movie ever - sorry! Writer J.D. Shapiro apologises for Battlefield Earth the recent winner of the Razzie for Worst Picture Of The Decade.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 4:52 AM PST - 193 comments

"Surrounded by darker, deeper ocean waters, coral atolls often glow in vibrant hues of turquoise, teal, peacock blue, or aquamarine. Belize's Lighthouse Reef Atoll fits this description, with its shallow waters covering light-colored coral: the combination of water and pale corals creates varying shades of blue-green. Within this small sea of light colors, however, lies a giant circle of deep blue. Roughly 300 meters (1,000 feet) across and 125 meters (400 feet) deep, the feature is known as the Great Blue Hole." (Massive NASA image of the atoll). [more inside]
posted by bwg at 3:16 AM PST - 23 comments

At least 35 dead in attacks on the Moscow subway. "Yuri Syomin, the head of the Moscow prosecutor's office, said the attacks had almost certainly been carried out by suicide bombers who boarded the metro at the height of the rush hour." Speculation is rampant as to the source of the attacks, with Ingushetia, Chechnya or Agastarn.
posted by rodgerd at 2:06 AM PST - 77 comments

LGBT conference forcibly shut down by hardline Islamists. Last Friday, in Surabaya, Indonesia, a mob of 150 occupied the hotel where an ILGA-Asia conference was taking place. [more inside]
posted by micketymoc at 1:36 AM PST - 27 comments

Al Jazeera English's "Listening Post" on the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative, a proposal that could turn Iceland into a "journalism haven."
posted by brundlefly at 10:26 PM PST - 10 comments

Clothing for Correspondence will write a letter for you. Just send them ... old clothes. Whether you're trying to woo a pretty circus girl or trying to help your ex avoid taking the hot booty call lady to nana's house for dinner, they have you covered. [via]
posted by cashman at 9:11 PM PST - 7 comments

The Special Relationship between the US and the UK is over... Perhaps it never really existed outside of the UK anyway.
posted by Artw at 7:58 PM PST - 86 comments

Best ChatRoulette pranks, collected on YouTube: Reactions to "Lady Gaga" cross-dressing dancer. ~ "If you turn your head, I win." ~ More costumed dancing. ~ "Every guy's fantasy." (Some videos may be NSFW.)
posted by Jacqueline at 6:07 PM PST - 24 comments

• Rahm Emanuel sent a rotting fish to a pollster he didn't like.
• Rahm Emanuel's rabbi lets him work on Rosh Hashanah.
• Rahm Emanuel declared his enemies "dead" while repeatedly stabbing a steak knife into the table.
• Rahm Emanuel tried to cut off Dick Cheney from government welfare.
• Before seeking medical attention for his severed finger, Rahm Emanuel went swimming.

Rahm Emanuel Facts: like Chuck Norris Facts, only 100% true.
posted by Captain Cardanthian! at 3:30 PM PST - 84 comments

Sleeping insects covered in morning dew
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 3:17 PM PST - 43 comments

Claudio Montuori is an Italian, one-man band, street performer. He plays Kalimba, an accordeon, a nacchere, various found objects, and a bevy of other instruments. And he whistles and sings. See also, Amibuz. [more inside]
posted by Toekneesan at 2:16 PM PST - 13 comments

Popular open source roguelike Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup has updated to version 0.6.
It is a variant of the older game Linley's Dungeon Crawl, and is regarded by many as one of the best roguelike games out there. Unlike its rival game Nethack it is undergoing rapid development. Also unlike Nethack, the game retains a more consistent difficulty level (hard) throughout, and has a much greater variety of character types. [more inside]
posted by JHarris at 1:02 PM PST - 61 comments

The yearly show on contemporary printmaking, Originals 10, is currently on in London. Some of the artists and work include: Anthony Dyson’s etching The Voyeur; John Bryce’s wood engraving Thames Arachnid; Morna Rhys’s Taf Estuary; Leila Pedersen’s etching Gloria gets Dizzy; Cordelia Cembrowicz’s etching Avon Amazons; Eileen Cooper’s woodcut Skipper; Hilary Paynter’s amazing wood engravings (site requires popups); Giulia Zaniol’s My City; Emiko Aida’s aquatint Reverie in the Rain; Paula Cox’s aquatint Magnolia Tree; Jessie Brennan’s Six Boys; and Graham Smith’s linocut Tattooed Lady. The gallery site has a brief summary of the exhibition and a link to the press release mentioning the work of Barton Hargreaves and Ralph Steadman.
posted by paduasoy at 12:59 PM PST - 5 comments

Run Jesus Run, or The 10 Second Gospel is a short and simple flash game about the life of Jesus, from the makers of the Oilgarchy and McDonald's games.
posted by CrunchyFrog at 12:55 PM PST - 24 comments

"Preppers are keen not to be seen as survivalists - the stereotypically anti-government, wood-dwelling, gun-toting hermits of past decades. Rather than isolating themselves in preparation for Armageddon, preppers tend to have normal jobs, mingle with their communities and take a more relaxed view about looming disasters. "
posted by stbalbach at 12:22 PM PST - 75 comments

Eva Markvoort, blogger, documentary subject, and cystic fibrosis activist, has died. The film about Eva, 65 Red Roses, was the subject of a post here in February. Her last blog entry was on Thursday; she died on Saturday morning. RIP.
posted by jokeefe at 11:42 AM PST - 29 comments

Interview with Martin Cooper, inventor of the first handheld cellular phone.
posted by snoktruix at 11:29 AM PST - 5 comments

Edwardian Drunkards
posted by grumblebee at 9:53 AM PST - 63 comments

How to Eat Watermelon - life lessons from Petey Greene's Washington, 1982. [more inside]
posted by madamjujujive at 9:33 AM PST - 20 comments

Play
posted by seliopou at 7:58 AM PST - 68 comments

Did you remember to turn off your lights last night for Earth Hour? This global event was celebrated from Kazakhstan to the Maldives with darkened public buildings, power savings, speeches, candles, rock’n’roll, fireworks, embarrassment, fire acrobats, and cocktails.
posted by twoleftfeet at 7:14 AM PST - 79 comments

The Cats' Portrait Gallery. Start at the ground floor and work your way up through twenty-five storeys of feline portraiture. [more inside]
posted by No-sword at 5:50 AM PST - 17 comments

Incestual Undertones in Star Wars (SLYT)
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 4:43 AM PST - 60 comments

Found Super 8 film clips reconstruct America from the late 1960s through the 70s. [more inside]
posted by jjray at 11:52 PM PST - 12 comments

Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition in Australia, Tony Abbott MHR, (the alternative Prime Minister), aged 53, is today undertaking his first full triathlon. This had led to a subtle whispering campaign over his priorities, as well as genuine fears for his health.
posted by wilful at 11:48 PM PST - 31 comments

The Dybbuk (Yiddish, 1937; based on the 1914 play by S. Ansky.)
posted by Iridic at 11:34 PM PST - 12 comments

The Yiddish Song of the Week [more inside]
posted by serazin at 10:48 PM PST - 9 comments

Ultimate Matzoh Balls is a simple, quick (10 level, automatically advancing) Flash basketball game that may help keep your mind off the lack of leavening in your diet this coming week. And by "your" I mean "my". The Yiddish exclamations for both the baskets and missed shots are worth the click.
posted by yiftach at 10:39 PM PST - 15 comments

Six Myths of the Art Market [more inside]
posted by Mitheral at 7:52 PM PST - 55 comments

VHS cover art was the pop art of the 80's. It wasn't till the mid 90's and dvd era that the movie poster or a cast photo would become the cover. Here are my favorite places to check out old vhs covers The Deuce Grindhouse VHS Cover Art Critical Conditon has a great break down by company. Scarecrow Video blog has posts pretty regularly like this one featuring painted covers of Klaus Kinski movies. and this post of horror movie cover boxes. At the bottom of that post are links to the rest of the scarecrow blogs painted cover postings. Enjoy.
posted by b2walton at 3:07 PM PST - 18 comments

Je suis lesbien declares the artist. His legs are encased in black stockings, secured to a suspender belt; his waist is constricted by a tight corset. On his head he wears a veil and a black mask. His fingers press a switch, a shutter clicks and Pierre Molinier, the forgotten Surrealist, is caught on camera forever.
An incestual necrophiliac, his work specialised in Fetish photomontage. An Introduction by Jean-Luc Mercié. (NSFW)
posted by adamvasco at 3:07 PM PST - 29 comments

LCD Soundsystem has released a short series of surprisingly interesting promotional videos for their as yet unannounced album showing James Murphy and collaborators dicking around the LA Mansion where they recorded it (3, 2, 1). The first single from the new album, Drunk Girls, has been released to pitchfork. [more inside]
posted by The Devil Tesla at 2:00 PM PST - 29 comments

Seven artists and their twitter streams.
Jeremiah Ketnet, Colin Johnson, Jason Limon, Dan May, Julie West, Kill Taupe, and Jonathan Bergeron. (many via)
posted by cjorgensen at 1:27 PM PST - 6 comments

Ever felt the need to listen to a piano cover of contemporary hits such as Daft Punk, Justice , the Pixies and Fatboy Slim while watching women dancing in black and white? Well Maxen Cecyrin will fulfil your strangely specific desire. (warning: slightly addictive)
posted by litleozy at 11:34 AM PST - 42 comments

"The Times and Sunday Times newspapers will start charging to access their websites in June, owner News International (NI) has announced. Users will pay £1 for a day's access and £2 for a week's subscription. The move opens a new front in the battle for readership and will be watched closely by the industry."(BBC) Some early reactions from other newspapers. Interview with Times editor about the charges. Previously
posted by blue funk at 10:52 AM PST - 86 comments

On America's little magazines. "The most up-to-date and reliable lists of literary magazines on the web". Literary Press and Magazine Directory. Category: American Literary Magazines. The Little Magazine A Hundred Years On: A Reader’s Report. [more inside]
posted by stbalbach at 9:43 AM PST - 8 comments

Is Nancy Pelosi the most powerful woman in American history?
posted by modernnomad at 9:39 AM PST - 106 comments

Stress: Our collective mood - "there seems to be a correlation between stress and lack of holidays. More important, however, is whether a relationship exists between either and economic performance. The data is equivocal. On average Americans put in an extra two hours a week compared with UK workers. Yet both countries had almost identical crises, while lazier nations fared considerably better." also btw: Why Women Don't Want Macho Men (cf. A Theory for Why Latvian Women are Beautiful) & Study Shows People In Power Make Better Liars (The psychology of power or The Duke and Dirty Harry)
posted by kliuless at 9:24 AM PST - 21 comments

Music from a bonsai. Diego Stocco ^{Flash, auto-music} makes music from lots of things. Here he makes music from a bonsai.
posted by djgh at 4:35 AM PST - 12 comments

Grigori Perelman has refused one million dollars from the Clay Mathematics Institute for his solution to the Poincaré conjecture. Despite some pressure to take the money and give it to one party or another, Perelman insists "I am not a hero of mathematics. I am not successful at all, and I do not want to be observed by everyone." Perelman previously refused the Fields Medal, mathematics' highest honor. (Previously.)
posted by twoleftfeet at 1:02 AM PST - 145 comments

Good Show Sir - a blog of the worst science fiction and fantasy book covers from the deepest depths of second hand bookstores around the world.
posted by Artw at 12:05 AM PST - 66 comments

10 Brilliant Medical Inventions That Should Have Caught On
posted by jjray at 11:39 PM PST - 32 comments

Cosmetic eye whitening surgery by regional conjunctivectomy, a procedure that's been around for decades is now being used to whiten the eyes for cosmetic purposes only. [more inside]
posted by neworder7 at 10:06 PM PST - 53 comments

Ms. Pac-Man 2010
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 9:27 PM PST - 34 comments

University of Illinois Student Counters Westboro Baptist Church Protest (YT video) [more inside]
posted by zarq at 9:09 PM PST - 38 comments

We saw a post about the Little House back in 2007. It sold for $139000 then. About a year ago it sold for approximately $173000. Now, it's up for sale again at reportedly $180000. It's been renovated and now has it's own site complete with a gallery, history, and celebrity endorsement.
posted by juiceCake at 9:09 PM PST - 24 comments

The 185 billion dollar a year cell phone/wireless communication industry is coming under increased scrutiny due to health concerns by some decidedly non tinfoil hat wearing parties. Earlier industry funded studies are also being more closely examined as many early adopters of cell phones are getting tumors at an alarming rate. And where does everybody's favorite, the ipod, sit? This is funny.....Apple actually advises you on page 7 of their product information guide to....well....not hold the thing up to your head. Or your body. But that's okay, cause the Evo, which doubles as a wi-fi hotspot, is about to hit. Good times!
posted by jake1 at 9:09 PM PST - 104 comments

Daniel Leonard Everett is a linguistics professor best known for his study of the Amazon Basin's Pirahã people and their language. "Influenced by the Pirahã's concept of truth, he slowly lost his Christian faith and became an atheist." Radio NZ hast a 90 minute interview with him. This is a shorter introduction if you prefer [more inside]
posted by nola at 8:39 PM PST - 35 comments

Vaughn Bode, one of the founding fathers of underground comics, talks and draws at the 1974 Toronto Comic Con. Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. Subjects include: censorship, Stan Lee, Jeff Jones, and the little tiny schizophrenic world inside his head. [maybe NSFW] [more inside]
posted by marxchivist at 8:19 PM PST - 16 comments

Lullaby If you have the right pup, it will do the singing for you. (SLYT)
posted by HuronBob at 8:15 PM PST - 10 comments

The British music industry is taking the carrot, rather than stick, approach when talking about downloading music. They have created a series of animations about various artists (Blind Willie Johnson, Kate Bush, Nick Cave, The Jam etc - I particularly like the Sigur Ros one) that proclaim 'music matters' and their 'trustmark' will appear on legitimate music downloading sites.
posted by meech at 4:40 PM PST - 59 comments

Designer Alex George has created a font based on the iconic Volvo 240 station wagon. (via) [more inside]
posted by spiderskull at 4:20 PM PST - 37 comments

UX Magazine — design, strategy, technology, and common sense. [more inside]
posted by netbros at 3:35 PM PST - 21 comments

Saul Bass + Tron = Retro Tron
posted by blue_beetle at 2:48 PM PST - 34 comments

Most people assumed the Tories would walk the coming election. But with their poll lead evaporating, what would a Conservative defeat mean for Britain – and David Cameron? What happens if David Cameron loses? [more inside]
posted by Len at 2:16 PM PST - 70 comments

On sale now: new film for Polaroid cameras. PX 100 Silver Shade / First Flush (for SX-70). Courtesy of The Impossible Project. (prev 1 2 3) [more inside]
posted by msalt at 2:03 PM PST - 25 comments

Neil Gaiman on what it's like to be invisible at the Oscars
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 12:08 PM PST - 92 comments

We've already seen seam carving for content-aware image resizing. Now, here's content-aware fill.
posted by lazaruslong at 11:50 AM PST - 73 comments

An unwilling Afghan bride's defiance leads to death. 'Frashta didn't want to marry her cousin, and she fled. In a land where tradition and family honor are everything, that sealed her doom. "So beautiful that no words could describe her face," said her uncle. A child of the provinces can never run far. She should have known this. Frashta, though, was headstrong. Two shots from a hunting rifle in the night, then they rolled her in cloth and tried to hide her, but some things cannot be hidden. She was found in the yard. "A bad woman," said the cop. [more inside]
posted by VikingSword at 11:24 AM PST - 63 comments

I'm on a mission - not to praise Jesus or ensure that every child in Namibia has a netbook, but to kill every single living vaguely human-like character in Fallout 3. ... everyone ... no matter how friendly, helpful, or beneficial to my completion of the game, must be put into the ground. "Natural Born Killer", an experiment in virtual genocide, parts One, Two and Three.
posted by slimepuppy at 11:12 AM PST - 45 comments

An island in the Bay of Bengal, South Talpatti/New Moore Island, disappears under rising seas. The inundation settles a long dispute between India and Bangladesh over the island.
posted by Barry B. Palindromer at 10:44 AM PST - 17 comments

And scientific researchers appear to be slowly conceding that zoophilia may be a genuine human sexual orientation. Scientific American's Jesse Bering research into zoophiles, prompted by a "an unusually erudite reader ... a self-professed zoophile" leads to more questions than answers: Are zoophiles attracted only to sexually mature animals—and if not, does this make them “zoopedophiles”? Do zoophiles find particular members of their preferred species more “attractive” than other individuals from those species, and, if so, are they seduced by standard beauty cues, such as facial symmetry in horses? What is the percentage of homosexual zoophiles (those who prefer animal partners of the same sex) over heterosexual zoophiles?
posted by geoff. at 10:42 AM PST - 240 comments

Museums build some pretty cool websites. To help people find them, use them, and give them props, the Museums and the Web conference has held an annual Best of the Web contest since 1997. This year's nominees are here. Just a sample: the MOMA on Bauhaus, the Center for New Media's Bracero History Archive, the Textile Museum of Canada's In Touch:Connecting Cloth, Culture, and Art, Perception Deception from The National Science and Technology Center of Australia, The Letters of Vincent Van Gogh from the Van Gogh Museum, the Smithsonian's Prehistoric Climate Change and Why it Matters Today, and more . If that doesn't wash out the remainder of your Friday, you can always dig into the past nominees.
posted by Miko at 10:28 AM PST - 8 comments

Learn Na'vi The large Na'vi reverse engineering project. (via). See also.
posted by OmieWise at 9:43 AM PST - 53 comments

Andy Rehfeldt dubs videos with different musical styles: What a Wonderful World (death metal version), Enter Sandman (smooth jazz version), Hammer Smashed Face (radio Disney version), I Gotta Feeling (Psycho version), and more.
posted by starman at 9:02 AM PST - 15 comments

A History of the Sky a timelapse video project by Ken Murphy (via)
posted by gwint at 8:23 AM PST - 12 comments

Eating off the People's Princess
posted by patricio at 8:22 AM PST - 52 comments

Reports coming through that a South Korean Navy Ship with 104 crew is currently sinking off Baengnyeong island in the Yellow Sea near the North Korean Border. No reports of casualties and causation yet to be determined. No word from the North Korean Korean Central News Agency.
posted by numberstation at 7:59 AM PST - 41 comments

Foodzie.com has been described as an Etsy for food. It's an online marketplace that puts you in touch with local artisinal chefs and growers with an emphasis on handmade, healthy and decadent food.
posted by sambosambo at 6:27 AM PST - 45 comments

Toronto band Fucked Up was everywhere at the South By Southwest music festival this year--playing at official and unofficial showcases, even once on the street, but often at unofficial massive advertising areas by, say, Pepsi or Levis. Some might think: How can a hardcore band justify their position in these marketing schemes? The answer, posted on the band blog by Mike the Guitarist, is simply titled: SXSW WHY? [more inside]
posted by Potomac Avenue at 5:27 AM PST - 47 comments

Give us 15 minutes of your time, and we will give you everything that matters in the world: "In our Best of the Moment section, we recommend journalism online which we judge likely to be of lasting value to the intelligent general reader." Also featuring interviews with experts recommending the best five books on everything. [more inside]
posted by lucia__is__dada at 4:17 AM PST - 24 comments

Leander Vyvey, a Belgian kiteboarder, jumps off a rooftop with a kite. [more inside]
posted by sively at 2:34 AM PST - 21 comments

Humans seem to be unemploying themselves very well.
posted by InsertNiftyNameHere at 11:46 PM PST - 32 comments

In 1954 the UK Atomic Energy Authority established a research campus at a distant, disused airfield in Caithness, Scotland. The mission: develop fast breeder reactor technology. In 1988, they chose to conclude the research and in 2000 to decommission the site. This 32-year cleanup now underway is chronicled at a most snazzy website... [more inside]
posted by tss at 11:46 PM PST - 7 comments

"she talked to me for a long time. she shared stories of staying in london and paris and that wonderful feeling that accompanies being there. she talked of gardening and music and even stress. we hit it off like old friends." .... Joshua Langlais spends a couple of hours every day looking for a stranger to talk with and photograph. He's done this every day since September 8, 2008. The results of his work can be seen at I ♥ Strangers. [more inside]
posted by bdragon at 11:42 PM PST - 20 comments

Creepy fairy-talish illustrations and animations of Gaston Vinas, including this horrifying (unofficial) Radiohead music video. NSFW.
posted by DZack at 11:21 PM PST - 9 comments

Grandma and cat. Miyoko Ihara's award-winning photos of her 85-year-old grandma Misao and her cat Fukumaru. [more inside]
posted by misozaki at 10:05 PM PST - 53 comments

Hypnotize yourself with iamnotanartist.org's "animated gif paranoia". Bonus "interactive webcomic" [Flash/sound]. [via]
posted by Combustible Edison Lighthouse at 10:05 PM PST - 10 comments

Julian Cope reviews Tom Lehrer. In case you haven't heard Julian Cope, this is he. In case you haven't heard Tom Lehrer, this is he.
posted by escabeche at 9:50 PM PST - 47 comments

Knowledge and Power in the Neo-Assyrian Empire may sound like a dry website, but its subject and content is fascinating. In the 7th Century BC King Assurbanipal of Assyria built a library that was to contain all the world's knowledge. Destroyed by the Medes in 612 BC, the library was not rediscovered until the 1840s. 28000 clay tablets written in Akkadian have been found. 1600 can be read online, all translated into English. It's a somewhat overwhelming amount, but there's a lovely highlights section, which even includes pictures of the pillow-shaped writing tablets. For a thorough overview, you can listen to the In Our Time episode about the Library of Nineveh. The most famous text to have been found in Nineveh is undoubtedly the Epic of Gilgamesh. The story of its decipherment and the controversies that ensued, is interesting in its own right.
posted by Kattullus at 9:26 PM PST - 24 comments

On his March 8th show Rush Limbaugh declared that if health care reform passed he would be getting his future heath care in Costa Rica. Mike and Patrick would like to buy him a ticket (as long as he doesn't come back). Enough money has already been raised, but if Rush refuses to go all monies will be donated to Planned Parenthood. (via and via)
posted by cjorgensen at 7:48 PM PST - 108 comments

"Those of us who are the firstborn always dream of that imaginary brother or sister who will be their protector, the buffer, the one to take the blows. I'm a firstborn, and Bob was the answer to my dreams. He was the big brother that all of us wish for." ~ Bill Cosby on his I-Spy co-star Robert Culp (79), who died of a heart attack yesterday after a fall outside his Hollywood Hills home [more inside]
posted by zarq at 7:41 PM PST - 38 comments

Among nominations for the least-accurate political memoir ever written is Douglas Brinkley's suggestion: James Buchanan's wildly disingenuous "Mr. Buchanan's Administration on the Eve of the Rebellion" (1866). Buchanan had the gall to shirk all responsibility for the Civil War. He blamed everybody but himself for the dissolution of the Union. A pathetic memoir aimed at trying to exonerate himself from serial wrongheadedness and flatfooted policy initiatives. What Buchanan wrote was revisionist blather.
posted by jjray at 7:30 PM PST - 12 comments

The creepy, weird and gory paintings and illustrations of Charlie Immer. (via the excellent art blog, Ink Mountain)
posted by picea at 7:23 PM PST - 14 comments

Dog eats car.
posted by atomicmedia at 7:02 PM PST - 36 comments

Jim Marshall, Rock ’n’ Roll Photographer, Dies at 74. The artist responsible for some of the most iconic photos in music history, died on March 24^th, 2010.
posted by chillmost at 6:28 PM PST - 27 comments

Warwick Cadwell's 100 panels in 100 days.
posted by Artw at 5:12 PM PST - 3 comments

Remember when Obama held an Internet 'town hall' meeting last March (previously)? Well Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada, decided to participate in a decidedly similar "Internet town hall"-esque interview, with a public system for posting and voting on questions. The response was surprisingly similar both in terms of votes, and in terms of Harper's response (skip to 35:40) to the voters' primary concern. [more inside]
posted by tybeet at 5:07 PM PST - 61 comments

Dutch coffee shop fined 10m euros for breaking drug law
posted by Tlery at 5:02 PM PST - 32 comments

Funnyman and "All American immigrant" Joe Wong at this year's RTCA dinner [SYTL]
posted by sk381 at 5:01 PM PST - 13 comments

Andrew O’Hagan writes in the London Review of Books on the James Bulger murder. It really should be read in conjunction with his earlier piece from 1993 to fully appreciate his stance. Previously [1] [2] [more inside]
posted by tellurian at 4:23 PM PST - 24 comments

RPG heroes are jerks!
posted by P.o.B. at 1:44 PM PST - 84 comments

I'm Here is a 30-minute short film written and directed by Spike Jonze. [via]
posted by churl at 1:43 PM PST - 10 comments

The verdict of United States v. Russell Cletus Maricle et al. is in: all defendants have been found guilty by a Kentucky jury. What makes this case more interesting than your average vote rigging scheme is that this is the only one that involved electronic voting machines. [more inside]
posted by cgs06 at 11:40 AM PST - 37 comments

13 Ways of Looking at Liz Lemon. More feminist complaint about Liz Lemon.
posted by shakespeherian at 11:14 AM PST - 243 comments

Dennis Coffey was one of the most prolific Detroit session and solo guitarists. His revamped site features a couple phenomenal podcasts of his music and interviews.
posted by klangklangston at 11:06 AM PST - 8 comments

Flash Mobs Take Violent Turn in Philadelphia

[H]undreds of teenagers have been converging downtown for a ritual that is part bullying, part running of the bulls: sprinting down the block, the teenagers sometimes pause to brawl with one another, assault pedestrians or vandalize property. . . . The flash mobs have raised questions about race and class. Most of the teenagers who have taken part in them are black and from poor neighborhoods. Most of the areas hit have been predominantly white business districts. In the flash mob on Saturday, groups of teenagers were chanting “black boys” and “burn the city,” bystanders said.

Bill Wasik is not proud.
posted by grobstein at 11:03 AM PST - 69 comments

This article, about differences between male and female brains, is doing the rounds on various blogs. (I found it via reddit.) Meanwhile, debunkers are doing their best to rip the author a new asshole.
posted by grumblebee at 11:02 AM PST - 84 comments

A year ago, Aaron Vargas walked into Darrell McNeil's trailer and shot him in the chest with a .44 caliber black powder revolver. For the next half hour, Vargas prevented McNeil's bewildered and horrified wife from calling the police while he watched McNeil die. Jury selection for Vargas's trial begins April 12th; the D.A. is seeking 50 years to life. Meanwhile, the citizens of Vargas's and McNeil's hometown - including McNeil's daughter, son, stepson, and aforementioned widow - have rallied together in support of justice for the victim. But he's not who you might think. (Some links may be NSFW.)
posted by granted at 10:57 AM PST - 75 comments

Affirmed evolution (and anti-intelligent design) biologist Francisco Ayala has won the 2010 Templeton Prize. In 1981, Ayala was a pivotal expert in overturning an Arkansas law that required the side-by-side teaching of creationism and evolution. Besides his nationally recognized work in evolution and genetics, the former Catholic priest has sought to reconcile evolution with religious belief, noting that science and religion are not mutually exclusive. [more inside]
posted by jabberjaw at 9:53 AM PST - 67 comments

Don't ever accept a Tequila shot from Fat Mike While performing as Cokie The Clown at SXSW this year, Fat Mike of NOFX made a lot of folks uncomfortable telling stories of his fucked up childhood, his mother's death, and of other crazy shit he allegedly witnessed and did throughout his life. The biggest "gag" of the evening involved Tequila. I imagine they would have been even more uncomfortable at one of these shows.
posted by snottydick at 8:55 AM PST - 115 comments

Molly Lives! Last night in Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Theatre Company premiered Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins. Kathleen Turner has taken on the role of the brassy Ivins. Turner knew Ivins personally and said "I liked Molly so much, and I liked the idea of keeping her alive, and being able to honor her." The script was written by twin sisters Alison and Margaret Engel, and based on Ivins' own words and writing.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 7:51 AM PST - 26 comments

In the 50's and 60's, more than a thousand sled dogs were slaughtered by RCMP officers and provincial police, some of them killed in ad hoc gas chambers. A recent report from retired Quebec judge Jean-Jacques Croteau states that Ottawa and Quebec should apologize and compensate the affected communities for 'turning a blind eye' to the slaughter. You can hear Makivik President, Pita Aatami talking about it on CBC's As It Happens
posted by Bartonius at 7:47 AM PST - 9 comments

Naughty Jerseys via UniWatch Blog
posted by jtron at 6:18 AM PST - 17 comments

LE'tsGOstudio. (some videos are QT)
posted by DU at 6:13 AM PST - 5 comments

Murder weapons
posted by twoleftfeet at 3:05 AM PST - 49 comments

Are we looking at end of Cancer? Human trials of nanobot treatment for cancer have proven the concept: [more inside]
posted by pjern at 8:42 PM PST - 93 comments

The health care bill requires chains with 20 or more restaurants to post calorie counts on their menus, as is already the law in New York and Philadelphia. A study published last fall suggested that the labels didn't change the eating behavior of low-income New Yorkers. A recent study at Yale, conducted under laboratory conditions, found the opposite. Corby Kummer at the Atlantic says calorie labeling works -- once you understand the point is to change the behavior, not of the consumer, but of the vendor. Will calorie labels lead the way to a healthier America, or a part-skim socialist dystopia? Or is the call of the Thickburger just too strong for mere numbers to dispel?
posted by escabeche at 8:00 PM PST - 113 comments

Trigonometric Delights. This book is neither a textbook of trigonometry—of which there are many—nor a comprehensive history of the subject, of which there is almost none. It is an attempt to present selected topics in trigonometry from a historic point of view and to show their relevance to other sciences. It grew out of my love affair with the subject, but also out of my frustration at the way it is being taught in our colleges.
posted by Wolfdog at 5:22 PM PST - 18 comments

Is Facebook chametz? An interview with two rabbis about their Facebook group, encouraging Jews to consider giving up Facebook for Passover next week. While the word "chametz" strictly refers only to leavened bread, which is prohibited during Passover, the group is inspired by a Chassidic interpretation that connects the leavening of bread to an "over-inflated sense of self."
posted by albrecht at 3:25 PM PST - 75 comments

UK Space Agency launched with a logo that "looks uncannily like the logo for the British Rocket Group, a scientific body from Doctor Who." It's mission is to develop British space technology, "[b]ut this will have to be done through unmanned space activities, because for the foreseeable future the UKSA will not have enough resources to reverse the decision, taken by the Thatcher government in the 1980s, that Britain will not pay for manned space flights... planned expeditions to the International Space Station will be funded by the country's partners in the European Space Agency."
posted by kliuless at 2:22 PM PST - 35 comments

"People are going to be what we say 'gobsmacked' by this news," said Terry Brown. New human ancestor.
posted by archivist at 2:11 PM PST - 56 comments

First, get the Pot. (via)
posted by anotherpanacea at 1:47 PM PST - 57 comments

A Muslim American soldier battles on friendly ground. 'In his 23 months in the Army, Klawonn has consistently earned among the highest physical training scores in his unit. He's at the top in weapons qualifications and is the only one in his battalion to be invited to try out for the Special Forces. But the thing that stands out most, says Capt. Christopher Arata, his commander, is Klawonn's impossibly clean record. Not one reprimand. Never even late to a morning formation.' 'You watch your words and actions, censoring anything that could be interpreted as anger. You do so even as you try to ignore the names piled on you. Sand monkey. Carpet jockey. Raghead. Zachari bin Laden. Nidal Klawonn. But the hardest to shake off -- the name that cuts deepest, especially for a man who defied his family and community to become a U.S. soldier -- is this one: Terrorist. "To be looked upon by the people you serve with, by people you've trusted your life with, as the enemy," Klawonn says, sitting in his barracks a month after receiving the note. His voice trails off as he struggles to describe the anger he feels. "It's not right." [more inside]
posted by VikingSword at 1:44 PM PST - 54 comments

Parachuting through the Austrian night sky to land on the roof of an castle to steal the Star of Empress Sisi is just the start of the adventures depicted in a fantastic article in Wired on the exploits of one Gerald Blanchard, Criminal Mastermind.
posted by Cobalt at 1:43 PM PST - 13 comments

We often feel alone—all six billion of us. We’ve learned, now more than ever, that being surrounded by people doesn’t keep us from feeling lonely.

Brandon Doman asks Ann Arbor strangers to write journal entries in his notebook. [more inside]
posted by rebent at 1:18 PM PST - 23 comments

Odd pronunciations of proper names (in the UK and Ireland). See also this Wikipedia list, assuming Wikipedia recovers sometime in the near future. Sadly, neither list helps with the pronunciation of Raymond Luxury Yacht. (Inspired by the poll and a recent episode of QI).
posted by kmz at 12:18 PM PST - 104 comments

Following the vote on Sunday, Mike Troxel of the Lynchburg Tea Party posted the address of what he thought was Dem Rep Tom Perriello, with the comment that activists should add a "personal touch" to their anger at Periello -- who voted yes on the health care bill -- by going to his house. It turns out the address was actually Perriello's brother's house, and the FBI are currently investigating the cut gas line that was discovered the next day. [more inside]
posted by FatherDagon at 11:59 AM PST - 378 comments

Aliens vs. Pooh
posted by Uther Bentrazor at 11:45 AM PST - 35 comments

DAVID MAMET LAYS OUT WHAT MAKES GOOD SCREENWRITING.
posted by jjray at 11:31 AM PST - 171 comments

"He liked camping, he liked rugged things, he liked firing a gun." LIFE publishes 20 previously-unseen pictures of Steve McQueen. [more inside]
posted by churl at 11:20 AM PST - 31 comments

A personal hero of mine, Ada Lovelace, daughter of Lord Byron and Annabella Milbanke is sometimes called the first computer programmer, based on her work with Charles Babbage and his "Difference Engine."
posted by Lynsey at 10:53 AM PST - 21 comments

The sexual politics of toilets.
posted by shakespeherian at 10:49 AM PST - 68 comments

March Madness just got a little crazier... It's this year's Name of the Year ballot! Names are submitted, verified to be real, then put in an NCAA-style bracket. Nohjay Nimpson might be a favorite this year, but I think Pepi Hamburger is going to be the dark horse. Voting for your favorites starts soon. Previous winners. Previously on MeFi.
posted by battlebison at 10:18 AM PST - 30 comments

Researchers at MIT and in Korea have developed a new, efficient desalinization nanotechnology that could theoretically lead to small, portable units powered by solar cells or batteries, yet deliver enough potable fresh water from seawater to supply the needs of a family or small village. As an added bonus, the system would simultaneously remove many contaminants, viruses and bacteria. MIT Press Release. Abstract and Supplementary Information from Nature Nanotechnology. (pdf) [more inside]
posted by zarq at 9:42 AM PST - 32 comments

The Commodore 64 - arguably the most influential PC in history - is back. They've beefed up the specs a bit.
posted by Joe Beese at 8:52 AM PST - 101 comments

50 Guitars which you have heard.
posted by Danf at 7:55 AM PST - 82 comments

The Two Dollar Tattoo Project "All artists participating will be expected to create unique works of tattoo art executed with only a single needle...The size of the final product will be expected to fill the space of a 'toonie', a Canadian two-dollar coin..." [more inside]
posted by The Straightener at 7:53 AM PST - 16 comments

The Man Who Planted Trees (part 2, part 3) is an Academy Award winning 1987 Canadian short animated film directed by Frédéric Back, based on the 1953 story by French author Jean Giono. See also/Previously.
posted by stbalbach at 7:49 AM PST - 10 comments

Colin Meloy of The Decemberists has an awesome Tumblr page.
posted by jbickers at 7:48 AM PST - 14 comments

Women were not allowed to speak at a meeting held to determine the fate of suspended principal John Hartwig of St. John’s Lutheran School in Baraboo, WI. While women are normally not allowed to vote at such meetings, this is the first time in recent history that the St. John’s Council President exercised his authority to keep females from even speaking. Women who wanted to ask questions were told to write them on a piece of paper and have a man read them aloud. Hartwig was suspended for distributing a document questioning Lutheran doctrine that says that women should not hold authority over men.
posted by Consonants Without Vowels at 7:37 AM PST - 129 comments

The World Economic Forum's Global Risk Report 2010. Here is the full report (HTML). As reported by the BBC, Wall Street Journal, and Reuters.
posted by WalterMitty at 7:03 AM PST - 9 comments

Operation Cornflakes was an action by the United States OSS in World War Two to distribute propaganda in Germany, using the Germany's own mail system with forged stamps and bombed mail trains.
posted by 1f2frfbf at 6:24 AM PST - 10 comments

Wired Reread: "In the fast paced world of tech, we often lure ourselves into believing that everything is different now, and old rules don’t apply. Well, quite often they do (if not always) and checking out our collective tech-past can help us get a perspective on the present."
posted by sveskemus at 6:14 AM PST - 43 comments

Want to take better nature photographs? BBC Wildlife Magazine has published a stack of their 'masterclass' features online. [more inside]
posted by smoke at 3:47 AM PST - 7 comments

"With the renewed interest in nuclear weapons I have been struck by how few people there still are who have seen one explode." Jeremy Bernstein looks back on the two above-ground tests he witnessed in 1957. "Smoky" and "Galileo" were part of Operation Plumbbob, a series of 29 tests.
posted by The Mouthchew at 3:42 AM PST - 20 comments

:)
posted by slater at 2:46 AM PST - 30 comments

If you need to hail a taxi-bus in Johannesburg, you'll need to know some complex hand signals [PDF]. Taxi hand signs are almost their own language, and artist Susan Woolf has adapted them into an art project, then a booklet, and finally postage stamps. [more inside]
posted by Shepherd at 2:24 AM PST - 11 comments

The Bill Paxton Pinball Machine via
posted by Katemonkey at 1:52 AM PST - 37 comments

The Edison Frankenstein, the first movie adaptation of Mary Shelley's story, and the first horror movie, is 100 years old as of last week. The Frankenstein blog has more details.
posted by Artw at 12:03 AM PST - 15 comments

Furniture designers, quinze & milan, team up with eastpak This mutant couch sort of looks like a life preserver jacket.
posted by la_scribbler at 11:29 PM PST - 15 comments

Gaza's tragically peculiar economy - Last week Palestinians marked the 1,000th day of the "siege" of the Gaza Strip. The continuing economic embargo, with its attendant social and economic effects on the more than 1.5 million Gazans, makes for a depressing story. Equally depressing is the extent to which this situation has somehow become accepted as normal and acceptable by much of the international community. [more inside]
posted by nevercalm at 10:41 PM PST - 64 comments

Not enough time to dig up the most interesting new music yourself? The MP3 blog for busy people is here to help, with once to twice weekly compilations of the best new tracks in a variety of genres, downloadable in .zip format. [via mefi projects]
posted by Rinku at 10:39 PM PST - 20 comments

Straight Acting [57m] is a first-person documentary about one man's journey from Mormon missionary to comfortably gay rugby player. [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 9:57 PM PST - 21 comments

Every year for the past 26 years, the United States has faced off against New Zealand in rugby ... on the ice sheets of McMurdo Sound. [Pages 2, 3, 4] [more inside]
posted by SpringAquifer at 9:15 PM PST - 25 comments

"To go to bed a citizen and wake up as a wanted terrorist is shocking." The British Government has strongly denounced the Israeli government's use of 12 forged British passports linked to the recent assassination in Dubai as a "hazard for the safety of British nationals in the region". The government has announced that they are expelling an Israeli diplomat -- the first such expulsion in twenty years. New biometric passports will be issued, and the government has issued a travel advisory for Israel, warning citizens "We recommend that you only hand your passport over to third parties including Israeli officials when absolutely necessary." Possibly forged Irish, French, Australian, and a German passport were also used for the assassination, according to investigators.
posted by markkraft at 8:37 PM PST - 81 comments

On March 23, 1910, Akira Kurosawa was born. Questionable as lists may be, some great trailers and snippets are here. At least in the UK, he even got a Google doodle.
posted by ambient2 at 8:16 PM PST - 25 comments

A small robot makes coffee.
posted by ardgedee at 7:33 PM PST - 33 comments

Ann Coulter to tour Canada! University to Ann Coulter: Please watch your mouth. I'm the victim of a hate crime, Ann Coulter tells Canadian audience. Security concerns cancel Ann Coulter's speech in Ottawa. [more inside]
posted by KokuRyu at 7:29 PM PST - 184 comments

In 1937, the London News Chronicle published a photograph of five boys at the gates of Lord's cricket ground; two stood aloof in top hats and tails, with their backs to a group of three working-class lads. The resulting photograph became famous as a metaphor for the class divide in Britain, appearing in newspaper stories about school reform, inequality and bourgeois guilt and on the covers of books. The photograph appeared in the Getty Images archive as "Toffs and Toughs", and even was printed on a jigsaw puzzle in 2004. The identities of the three working-class boys were unknown until a journalist tracked them down in 1998; here is an article on the history of the photograph and the lives of the five boys in it.
posted by acb at 6:59 PM PST - 36 comments

A to Z of Awesomeness. Every entry fully and lovingly illustrated by Neill Cameron.
posted by CrunchyFrog at 6:27 PM PST - 25 comments

Nature by Numbers is a new animated short film by Cristóbal Vila (previously) inspired by some mathematical constructs found in nature. (via)
posted by gruchall at 6:19 PM PST - 7 comments

In honor of the Health Care Reform bill that passed on Sunday, here is a 1992 episode of Star Trek: "I, Borg" (2, 3, 4, 5). It is one of the unsung heroes of healthcare reform. [more inside]
posted by The Devil Tesla at 6:17 PM PST - 76 comments

Reviewer leaves during intermission of Wilco's first North American concert on their new tour, writes review anyway. [more inside]
posted by bonefish at 5:28 PM PST - 57 comments

The Alien Song (for those who listen) Austin, Texas 1994 [more inside]
posted by xod at 5:16 PM PST - 16 comments

Plastic Bag - Struggling with its immortality, a discarded plastic bag (voiced by Werner Herzog) ventures through the environmentally barren remains of America as it searches for its maker. A short film by Ramin Bahrani.
posted by HuronBob at 3:54 PM PST - 32 comments

German explorer Alexander von Humboldt was the first Westerner to observe the unusual rope system in 1804. Back then the ropes were made from hemp, which has a propensity for breaking due to rot. The hemp ropes have since been replaced by steel cables. What hasn't changed is that they are 1,300 ft above the river, people zip down them using only a small stick to control their speed and if you are too small, you have to ride in a burlap sack (video).
posted by Mr_Zero at 3:44 PM PST - 44 comments

Cary Grant was the first mainstream celebrity to espouse the virtues of psychedelic drugs. (previously)
posted by gman at 2:43 PM PST - 48 comments

The world's only immortal animal
The turritopsis nutricula species of jellyfish may be the only animal in the world to have truly discovered the fountain of youth. (via rw)
posted by kliuless at 1:49 PM PST - 56 comments

“I have never seen a man fail so thoroughly and just keep taking this kind of abuse.” (cache)
posted by jtron at 1:44 PM PST - 61 comments

The official Church of Satan Video List. The official Church of Satan Fiction Reading List. The official Church of Satan Non-Fiction Reading List.
posted by hermitosis at 12:45 PM PST - 81 comments

The Periodic Table of Periodic Tables
posted by shoesfullofdust at 12:13 PM PST - 25 comments

The American Theatre Wing hosts MP3 interviews with actors, directors, playwrights and other artists. e.g. Stephen Sondheim and Anna Deavere Smith and F. Murray Abraham and Eric Bogosian and John Patrick Shanley and Edward Albee and Venessa Redgrave and Alan Ayckbourn and...
posted by grumblebee at 11:52 AM PST - 7 comments

Ford motor company has announced that they are ceasing production on the Crown Victoria - the most widely used police car model in the United States of the last thirty years. [more inside]
posted by dirtdirt at 11:50 AM PST - 105 comments

On Karma: Top-line Lessons on User Reputation Design is an excellent overview of reputation system design concepts from the excellent-in-general blog of Randy Farmer and Bryce Glass, authors of the recently-released O'Reilly book Building Web Reputation Systems.
posted by cortex at 11:47 AM PST - 17 comments

Meet Powell Crosley Jr., lifelong American inventor and entrepreneur. After making a mint in auto parts, Crosley started in on phonographs and radios. Like many radio manufacturers of the time, Crosley stepped up demand by building a radio station; a BIG radio station. At 500,000 watts it was both the largest-ever commercial radio station with potential coverage of most of the country. With that much throw, it seemed a natural fit for the fantastical: radio facsimile machines. Crosley would later get into appliances, sports, and eventually back into his first love, automobiles.
posted by Ogre Lawless at 11:38 AM PST - 17 comments

The notebook of cartographer Zachary Forest Johnson. There is lots of good stuff here. For example, political cartography: voting with our pocketbooks, or this biography of Wild Bill Bunge.
posted by chunking express at 11:27 AM PST - 1 comment

Andrew Levy reviews a lot of food in a little time. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you The Inhuman Eating Machine!
posted by Mountain Goatse at 10:51 AM PST - 18 comments

185 singers, 12 countries, one conductor -- all online. Grammy-nominated composer and conductor Eric Whitacre put out a call for singers on his blog in July of 2009. He then posted the conductor track for his piece "Lux Aurumque" and gave instructions, including how to audition for the brief soprano solo. Recordings trickled in on YouTube over the next few months until the January 1 deadline; the results were posted on March 22. [more inside]
posted by Madamina at 9:58 AM PST - 26 comments

Global Oil Reserves 'Exaggerated by a Third:' The world's oil reserves have been exaggerated by up to a third, leading UK scientist Sir David King claimed today, warning of oil shortages and price spikes within years.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 9:49 AM PST - 112 comments

Absurd And Beautiful: A Tribute To Pip Proud you can find music from pip proud here. Listen to 'crystal night'(ode to the 20th century)
posted by frequently at 9:44 AM PST - 2 comments

I have a sad story to tell you
It may hurt your feelings a bit
Last night when I walked into my bathroom
I stepped in a big pile of ______ [more inside]
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 9:05 AM PST - 32 comments

"I'm trying, of course, to give a sense of objects moving through and being supported by or buffeted by, the wind or water" - sculptor Brad Story [via MeFi Projects]
posted by mediareport at 6:27 AM PST - 21 comments

The Banshee Lives in the Handball Alley is a "compilation derived from a collection of folkloric stories recorded with children from the Moyross and St. Marys Park areas of Limerick City between 2004 and 2005. The work serves to highlight how folklore is constantly added to, and how it is linked to memory and occasion, fiction and interpretation."
posted by minifigs at 4:25 AM PST - 12 comments

ACORN, the low-income community grassroots organisation, is set to close by April 1st, citing "a series of well-orchestrated, relentless, well-funded, right-wing attacks that are unprecedented since the McCarthy era". Meanwhile the New York Times has issued a correction on the stories which led to the 87-3 vote to remove ACORN's Federal funding (previously), admiting that "while footage shot away from the offices shows one activist, James O'Keefe, in a flamboyant pimp costume, there is no indication that he was wearing the costume while talking to the Acorn workers."
posted by Artw at 10:13 PM PST - 87 comments

MoMA has acquired the @ symbol into its collection, and provides a short history on @ to accompany the announcement. [more inside]
posted by emilyd22222 at 8:01 PM PST - 106 comments

Young Me / Now Me (slzf)
posted by swift at 6:38 PM PST - 45 comments

The Story of Bottled Water (direct YT link) - Annie Leonard (Colbert Nation; previously) narrates a new video about bottled water. World Water Day is March 22.
posted by mrgrimm at 2:09 PM PST - 68 comments

The NHS Behind the Headlines site gives the scientific facts behind the medical stories making the news.
posted by chorltonmeateater at 1:28 PM PST - 24 comments

Google vs. China, Round 2! Starting today, Google has redirected google.cn to their other Chinese search engine, google.com.hk. Will China be forced to block access to their own domains? Will Hong Kong, home to widespread political protest, be further segregated from the mainland? For the benefit of Western audiences, Google has made a page for us see what's getting blocked. (previously/2)
posted by shii at 1:20 PM PST - 53 comments

A new study suggests that humanity's sense of fair play and kindness towards strangers is determined by culture, not genetics. Speculation: the finding may be directly related to the rise of religion in human history, as well as more complex economies. (Via). [more inside]
posted by zarq at 12:43 PM PST - 49 comments

The League of Moveable Type offers a growing collection of high-quality, open-source fonts to help make the web a bit nicer to look at.
posted by dunkadunc at 12:38 PM PST - 60 comments

Is Vitamin C worth taking or not? Does Echinacea kill colds? Am I missing out not drinking litres of Goji juice, wheatgrass extract and flaxseed oil every day? A generative data-visualisation of all the scientific evidence for popular health supplements by David McCandless and Andy Perkins. (Still Image) (data) [via] [more inside]
posted by Orange Pamplemousse at 12:12 PM PST - 77 comments

Two-part video of interviews with residents of a home for elderly prostitutes in Mexico's senior-citizen sex-worker capital. (via)
posted by prefpara at 12:11 PM PST - 4 comments

How one man got 3rd place in a World Rally Championship event, in a $500 car.
posted by hellojed at 12:11 PM PST - 39 comments

Fine Structure: Ching raises one hand ahead of him and delivers a series of complex commands to the fabric of reality. [more inside]
posted by niles at 12:03 PM PST - 9 comments

Playing basketball from the closet. From Dime Magazine's post - Secret Life of the Gay American Basketball Player. [more inside]
posted by cashman at 8:40 AM PST - 37 comments

Advanced Squad Leader is a tactical-level board wargame, originally marketed by Avalon Hill Games, that simulates actions of approximately company or battalion size in World War II. ... Despite the price tag and the expensive lists of prerequisites for each new module, the game system caught on and new modules continued to be produced twenty years after the original release - a feat unheard of in the board wargaming industry, especially with the decline in sales due to rising popularity of console and PC games. [more inside]
posted by Joe Beese at 8:27 AM PST - 75 comments

When a tree falls in the forest, but nobody comes along for 45,000 years, can you still hear it? Recipe for 'preserved wood' (not 'petrified' wood): take one dead tree, cover with enough mud or freezing water to keep oxygen out, wait. How long? Perhaps only 45 years, in the case of the Suriname hardwoods being harvested with underwater robot saws. Or maybe around 100 years, for the millions of logs that sank in Lake Superior during logging operations, now being brought to the surface. But the carbon dating of 45,000 years on the Kauri wood being 'logged' in New Zealand swamps and turned into furniture has these beat.
posted by woodblock100 at 7:24 AM PST - 51 comments

Monday Morning Nerd-Porn
posted by jtron at 7:12 AM PST - 28 comments

Back in the 1920s, when Warren "Baby" Dodds was busy inventing jazz drumming in the company of pioneers like King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton and Louis Armstrong, to "give the drummer some" usually never meant more than a couple of bars fill every now and again. Fortunately, though, come 1946, when Dodds was already an older man but still in fine playing form, someone had the wherewithal to record this seminal percussion stylist in a series of extended drum solos, displaying his exuberant rhythmic stylings as well as his lending of superbly playful swing to the the rudiments. But let's jump back to the 20's again, and hear drummer Dodds, with the aforementioned King Oliver, take what's gotta be the killingest slide whistle solo in all of jazz history. [more inside]
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:56 AM PST - 11 comments

Kevin Coyne plays his song "Having A Party" live in Köln, 1979. [more inside]
posted by koeselitz at 3:57 AM PST - 8 comments

Tom Bissell recounts how he was addicted to video games and cocaine and how beautiful he finds computer games. Tom Bissell, who was profiled by Poets & Writers three years ago when his writing career seemed like it could only go up, has written books and articles for such magazines as The New Yorker, Harper's, Esquire, The Believer, among others. For the last three years he's spent his writing time on Grand Theft Auto IV and other games. The Observer convened a number of games journalists and industry folk to converse about video games in connection to Bissell's essay. Earthworm Jim designer Dave Perry gave a TED talk a few years ago about the increasing aesthetic value of games which included a video by a college student Michael Highland called As Real as Your Life, which presents his thoughts about what it's like to have grown up on computer games. [Tom Bissell previously on MeFi]
posted by Kattullus at 12:36 AM PST - 164 comments

Antique typewriters. Welcome to the Martin Howard Collection of Early Typewriters. Comprised of typewriters from the very beginning of the typewriter industry (1880s & 1890s), it is the largest of its kind in Canada. The collection contains many rare and historically important typewriters, showing the remarkable diversity and beauty of the world's first typing machines. (Via)
posted by Astro Zombie at 9:04 PM PST - 20 comments

House passes Healthcare reform. All that's left is voting on a reconciliation package for the senate to sign. But the house has passed the senate bill, which means this is basically a done deal. [more inside]
posted by delmoi at 7:55 PM PST - 897 comments

Fiverr -- What would you do for $5? "I will do voice over and/or voice acting for you for $5." • "I will write a Short Bed Time Story for $5." • "I will write anything appropriate on my forehead and wear it to public school all day for $5." Any requests? "Do a 30 second video commercial for my website." • "Reduce/eliminate echo in an audio file." • "Ask a girl out for me."
posted by not_on_display at 5:01 PM PST - 56 comments

Well, here goes. I really resent the term, but I use it because it’s recognized and accepted. I’m gay. From some seventy years of personal experience, I can tell you that there’s not much “gay” about being homosexual. For the first twenty years of my life, I had to live in the shadows, in a culture that was — at least outwardly — totally hostile to any hint of that variation of life-style. James Randi (previously), at age 81, has come out. He discusses the announcement in more detail on the JREF podcast For Good Reason.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 3:11 PM PST - 143 comments

An Australian Madoff? Trio Capital, an Australian fund manager, has been ordered to wind up its funds after being unable to account for $123 million in its Astarra fund since investigations began in October. The fund "has a total of $426 million under management - including superannuation savings of about 10,000 Australians." Some worry what this means for more potential frauds in Australia's "privatized social security." [more inside]
posted by FuManchu at 3:01 PM PST - 10 comments

Last month, Arundhati Roy decided to visit the forbidding and forbidden precincts of Central India’s Dandakaranya Forests, home to a melange of tribal people many of whom have taken up arms to protect themselves against state-backed marauders and exploiters. She recorded in considerable detail her face-to-face encounter with armed guerillas, their families and comrades.
posted by shoesfullofdust at 2:48 PM PST - 11 comments

Streets of Plenty is a documentary set in Vancouver's DTES of Corey Ogilvie's 31 day homelessness experiment whose thesis wasn't resolved until the 26th (and last) day. [more inside]
posted by sleslie at 2:01 PM PST - 24 comments

You say Potato, I say... [more inside]
posted by Antidisestablishmentarianist at 1:57 PM PST - 13 comments

"I would have liked to think I'd have gone out with a bit more flair." Margaret Moth, CNN photojournalist, has died of colon cancer at 59. [more inside]
posted by oinopaponton at 1:13 PM PST - 21 comments

The Steinway of Harmonicas. [more inside]
posted by timsteil at 1:12 PM PST - 23 comments

Soviet CGI, circa 1968 (SLYT)
posted by Chinese Jet Pilot at 12:38 PM PST - 19 comments

Emilio the Moor was a parodying humorist flamenco exponent who died in a domestic gas incident. [via]. [more inside]
posted by tellurian at 11:59 AM PST - 8 comments

In anticipation of tomorrow's WiiWare release of the ridiculously awesome Pixel platformer, "Cave Story" (aka "Doukutsu Monogatari"), the Wii developer Nicalis has been running a series on their blog featuring fan art and artists. [more inside]
posted by brundlefly at 11:52 AM PST - 57 comments

Creepy banned CK ads from 1995 [more inside]
posted by KokuRyu at 11:42 AM PST - 92 comments

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the massacre at Sharpeville. Amandla! Awethu!
posted by quodlibet at 11:33 AM PST - 7 comments

If you enjoy Jonathan Goldstein's contributions to This American Life or his recent book Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bible! you'll probably enjoy the quirky, self-depricating comedy of his newly podcast (previously) CBC show WireTap, now in its sixth season. [more inside]
posted by l33tpolicywonk at 10:59 AM PST - 23 comments

The date was February 15, 1996. The place was the Xichang Satellite Launch Center (Google Map), situated some 64 km northwest of Xichang City, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan Province. At 2:50 AM, the Chinese Long March 3B rocket launched carrying the Intelsat 708, an American communications satellite. Seconds later, the worst space-related disaster in history occurred sparking a technology transfer controversy. Chinese authorities said 6 people died but video footage tells a different story.
posted by stringbean at 9:39 AM PST - 26 comments

The <video tag>, as defined by the HTML5 spec, is an element "used for playing videos or movies". Which codec those videos or movies are in is currently undefined, with the two contenders being the free open source Ogg Theora and the proprietary H.264. With the unveiling of Internet Explorer 9 both Microsoft and Apple are supporting H.264 in their browsers, and comparisons of the standards seem to bear out H.264 as the better of the two. However Mozilla have taken a stance against incorporating H264 into Firefox on the grounds that it is patented and has to be licensed. Arguments are now being made for and against Mozilla sticking to its ideals. John Gruber of Daring Fireball points out that Firefox already supports proprietary formats such as GIF. Um, perhaps not the best example.
posted by Artw at 9:19 AM PST - 140 comments

Liz Carpenter, Texas humorist, women's rights crusader and aide to Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson, dies at 89 [more inside]
posted by ColdChef at 8:56 AM PST - 18 comments

How to Make a Three-Pendulum Rotary Harmonograph
posted by Wolfdog at 8:21 AM PST - 10 comments

In December 2008 the journalist Victoria Coren revealed the existence of a bizarre crew of professional gatecrashers, led by ex-magistrate Terence Jolley, who liked to show up at the funerals of people they'd never met, apparently in the hope of cadging some free food and drink. Their activities were exposed after Coren advertised a (fictitious) memorial service for the (imaginary) Sir William Ormerod and waited for the Jolley Gang to fall into the trap (previously on MetaFilter). Now the Jolley Gang are back in the news after one of their number, 'retired banker' Alan MacDonald, gatecrashed a party at the Dorchester Hotel and choked to death on a canapé.
posted by verstegan at 8:15 AM PST - 29 comments

Jug Suraiya, famed middle of the editorial ha ha heh man of india's ridiculous prolific and noisy media takes a poke at stereotypes. All ring true of course.
posted by infini at 4:08 AM PST - 18 comments

SLYT: Ben Folds responds to Merton's Chat Roulette Improv (slightly NSFW: language) [more inside]
posted by miratime at 3:17 AM PST - 65 comments

Cybersyn (or Synco, in Spanish) was computer network constructed in 1970 by an English/Chilean team headed by cyberneticist Stafford Beer (his papers). Cybersyn was an electronic nervous system for the Chilean economy, linking together mines, factories and so on, to better manage production and give workers a clear idea of what was in demand and where. The network was destroyed by the army after the 1973 coup. Later that year Stafford Beer drew upon the lessons of Cybersyn to write Fanfare for Effective Freedom, a eulogy for Allende and Cybersyn, and Designing Freedom, a series of six lectures he gave for CBC, outlining his ideas. Besides the first link in this post, the best place to start is this Guardian article from 2003. If you want to go more in-depth, read Eden Medina's Designing Freedom, Regulating a Nation: Socialist Cybernetics in Allende’s Chile. And if nothing else, just take a look at the amazing Cybersyn control room.
posted by Kattullus at 12:01 AM PST - 31 comments

Dog and cat washing machine (SLYT)
posted by water bear at 11:27 PM PST - 48 comments

Anglo-Saxon Aloud: Daily readings (and podcasts) from the Complete Corpus of Anglo Saxon Poetry, presented by Prof. Michael Drout, Wheaton College. For those that like to read along, the Corpus presented in text (no translation, though).
posted by Chrischris at 8:10 PM PST - 18 comments

"Starting with the precedents set by Charles Ives and John Cage, VARIATIONS presents the principal milestones of Sampling Music, looking at examples from 20th century composition, popular art and the mass media, and the way all of these currents converge today." Curated by Jon Leidecker, who records and performs as Wobbly. "Poet Kenneth Goldsmith presents selections from UbuWeb, the learned and varietous online repository concerning concrete & sound poetry, experimental film, outsider art and all things avant-garde" in Avant-Garde All the Time. Goldsmith's the founding editor of UbuWeb and sometime DJ on WFMU as Kenny G. (Previously: CodPaste - a 14-part podcast about the history and practice of sound collage and mashups. )
posted by moonmilk at 8:01 PM PST - 9 comments

Breakout, on acid
posted by delmoi at 7:06 PM PST - 49 comments

The Visual Understanding Environment (VUE) is a free, open source program developed at Tufts University. It lets you create concept (mind) maps and analyze them in various ways. One very useful thing it can do is generate concept maps from .CSV files. Here’s an introductory screencast (length: 6 min 9 sec). You can watch all related videos here. The program runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux.
posted by Jasper Friendly Bear at 6:52 PM PST - 10 comments

From the surreal comic duo Tim and Eric (seen previously) comes a fifteen minute short about parenthood: Father and Son.
posted by Rory Marinich at 5:48 PM PST - 40 comments

During eight years heading the Interior Department, from 1961 to 1969, for the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, he crusaded for the Clean Air Act, the Wilderness Act , the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act and the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act . During his tenure, the US added 2.4 million acres to our national parks. And it was to him that Nikita Kruschev famously hinted at missiles in Cuba, precipitating the Cuban Missile Crisis . Stewart Udall died today at age 90.
posted by spacely_sprocket at 4:23 PM PST - 20 comments

Andy Grauland scours Google Maps for stunning natural imagery. The 19-year old Dane has close to two dozen extracts on his site. Take a look at places where no street view exists, and feel free to zoom/pan. (via, see also (previously))
posted by aberrant at 4:09 PM PST - 21 comments

Getting ugly at the tea party protests today.
posted by kgasmart at 2:43 PM PST - 1443 comments

Idaho recently passed H.B. 633 (.pdf) that will allow Idaho citizens to pay their state taxes with an official state silver medallion. The news comes just a month after a South Carolina legislator introduced a bill seeking to ban Federal currency altogether, and replace the upstart greenback with gold or silver coins. Meanwhile, Georgia has introduced the "Sound Money in Banking Act" which would require any bank serving as a depository for the state to offer and accept gold and silver coins for deposit. Is gold making a comeback as currency?
posted by julie_of_the_jungle at 1:56 PM PST - 109 comments

[pdf] Clergymen in the closet -- not because they are gay; because they don't believe in God. Here's a followup.
posted by grumblebee at 12:37 PM PST - 162 comments

Not necessarily “naïve”; more like “vernacular.” Jules Vernacular posts dozens of photos of vernacular or unschooled signage on French buildings (in the site’s punning slogan, lettres œuvrières et incongruités typographiques). As ever, it’s amazing that this typography, most of it hand-drawn, hasn’t been wiped out by progress and regularized into Arial (or the Arial of 2010, Papyrus). [more inside]
posted by joeclark at 12:27 PM PST - 17 comments

Vince Clarke welcomes Motherboard.tv to his electronic cabin in the woods. [more inside]
posted by urbanwhaleshark at 12:01 PM PST - 21 comments

TV Medley "Duet"
posted by jpdoane at 11:44 AM PST - 13 comments

Misunderstanding Darwin: Natural selection’s secular critics get it wrong. Ned Block and Philip Kitcher review Jerry Fodor's (previously) and Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini's book What Darwin Got Wrong. Fodor and Piattelli-Palmarini respond: “Misunderstanding Darwin”: An Exchange.
posted by homunculus at 10:23 AM PST - 62 comments

Towards the empathic civilisation
The human race is in a twilight zone between a dying civilisation on life support and an emerging one trying to find its legs. Old identities are fracturing while new identities are too fragile to grasp. To understand our situation, we need to step back and ask: what constitutes a fundamental change in the nature of civilisation? The great turning points occur when new, more complex energy regimes converge with communications revolutions, fundamentally altering human consciousness in the process.
posted by kliuless at 9:41 AM PST - 13 comments

Reading in the traditional open-ended sense is not what most of us, whatever our age and level of computer literacy, do on the Internet. Books cease to be individual works but are scanned and digitized into one great, big continuous text. The dynamics of the digital are encouraging authors, journalists, musicians and artists to treat the fruits of intellects and imaginations as fragments to be given without pay to the hive mind. But what becomes of originality and imagination in a world that prizes metaness and regards the mash-up as more important than the sources who were mashed? The very value of artistic imagination and originality, along with the primacy of the individual, is increasingly being questioned in our copy-mad, postmodern digital world. Remix is the very nature of the digital. But do we now face a situation in which culture is effectively eating its own seed stock?
posted by Toekneesan at 8:26 AM PST - 47 comments

The alt-weekly newspaper war in San Francisco - The titanic struggle between The Bay Guardian and SF Weekly (owned by Village Voice Media), as told by Eli Sanders of Seattle alt-weekly The Stranger.
posted by Artw at 8:10 AM PST - 22 comments

I've been to Oʻahu several times but until now had never heard of the Haʻikū Stairs, also known as the Stairway to Heaven or Haʻikū Ladder. I'm heading to Oahu in 2011; I think I'll go get some photos. But for now, these will have to do. [more inside]
posted by bwg at 2:35 AM PST - 17 comments

The idea of the cassette: A gallery with musings. [via]
posted by cashman at 11:42 PM PST - 27 comments

Builders/owners of eco-friendly homes can't refinance in the new, tighter credit market simply because there is a lack of appraisals for comparable homes. I've long been a fan of unusual homes, especially artsy/organic-looking ones. A common theme is "off the grid" energy-efficiency and natural climate control. Sometimes, they are extremely creative, totally trippy, or even oddly pretty . And sometimes, they are absolutely stunning.
posted by janetplanet at 11:00 PM PST - 22 comments

Antanas Mockus , a Lithuanian-Colombian mathematician-philosopher and former mayor of Bogota, is running for president of Colombia. As president of the Colombian National University, he mooned the student body. In two terms as mayor, he hired mimes to stand on corners with red "INCORRECTO" banners to humiliate Bogota's legendarily reckless drivers, took a shower on TV to demonstrate water conservation, and instituted a one-night men-only curfew so the city's women could enjoy a single-sex night out (as seen previously on MetaFilter.) Mockus will be the Green Party candidate in the May 30 election, part of a crowded field with no overwhelming favorite. Mockus on Twitter (en espanol.) Mockus campaign commercial (en espanol tambien.) Mockus speaks at Harvard's Kennedy School (in English, long.)
posted by escabeche at 10:20 PM PST - 11 comments

1:12 Scale Food
posted by Joe Beese at 9:45 PM PST - 37 comments

Suspension: It Grows on You Is "Suspension" ever corrective?
posted by emhutchinson at 8:20 PM PST - 45 comments

OK. Alright. That's it. Ronnie of Botswana is my new favorite guitarist.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:00 PM PST - 65 comments

That much wind means some very big and nasty waves... We experienced a total of 4 knockdowns, the second was the most severe with the mast being pushed 180 degrees in to the water. Actually pushed isn't the right word, it would be more accurate to say that Ella's Pink Lady was picked up, thrown down a wave, then forced under a mountain of breaking water and violently turned upside down.
posted by Huplescat at 7:00 PM PST - 37 comments

"Here come the inevitable Freudian references: the Solo Traveler lid is a substitute for a mother’s breast – what we might call nature’s original travel lid. The flat covers with the tear-back openings offer no such metaphoric representation. Instead, spout = nipple. Paper cup = warm skin. Coffee, tea or soy = mother’s milk. Ergo the lid is a nurturing apparatus. It provides comfort and joy as well as nourishment." [via] [more inside]
posted by ocherdraco at 6:14 PM PST - 49 comments

Plug in a wall-wart to delete your Facebook profile! Eben Moglen, General Counsel of the Free Software Foundation, solves the problem of proprietary social networks.
posted by tybstar at 4:40 PM PST - 52 comments

Johnny Lingo paid eight cows for his wife.^ (Original Story, 1960's version [1, 2, 3] , and a 2003 full length movie)
posted by Drama Penguin at 3:56 PM PST - 25 comments

Atomic Surgery: Scrambling the Molecules of Science and Pop Culture [via PALAEOBLOG]
posted by brundlefly at 2:29 PM PST - 4 comments

Remember Peter Watts, the Canadian sci-fi writer who in December was arrested and charged with assaulting a border agent, resisting arrest, and being an asshole after being pulled over for inspection while leaving the US because his rental car had Washington plates? He was today found guilty of "failure to comply with a lawful command" by a Port Huron, Michigan, jury. Part Three, The Sentencing, will take place April 26. Watts faces up to two years in federal prison. [more inside]
posted by FlyingMonkey at 1:49 PM PST - 135 comments

One Nation Under Sex. Pornographer and free speech activist Larry Flynt is no stranger to politics, hypocritical politicians, or to writing books on same. But his latest project "One Nation Under Sex", co-written by Columbia lecturer David Eisenbach, and subtitled How the Private Lives of Presidents and First Ladies Shaped America, is nothing less than "a sweeping account of how the sex lives of American presidents have had a tangible effect on American policy and history." Gawker has posted the book's proposal online. [All links SFW.]
posted by stinkycheese at 1:34 PM PST - 17 comments

The Body Snatchers look at a human and see a nice new home. The Visitors look at a human and see a yummy snack. The Smarter Planet people look at a human and see data. Our planet is alive with data. Yummy data.
posted by cross_impact at 12:47 PM PST - 16 comments

If an ad agency sent me this, I would be impressed.
posted by archivist at 12:17 PM PST - 34 comments

Started in 1930 (by the by the lieutenant governor while the sitting governor was out of state) to protect the great state of Nebraska from all that wish it harm, Nebraska has it's own navy. Want a commission? Just ask the governor and join these notable members.
posted by 1f2frfbf at 11:54 AM PST - 26 comments

Bedrooms of the Fallen, from war photographer Ashley Gilbertson. Via the NYT Lens Blog: War Memorials With Neatly Made Beds. (Slideshow: The Shrine Down The Hall)
posted by zarq at 11:38 AM PST - 26 comments

Due to population decline, Detroit plans on bulldozing roughly a quarter of the 139-square-mile city into semi-rural farmland. It is a worst case scenario in America, but pales to the problem of Eastern Germany, where demographic collapse in some towns is so severe, urban-wolves and neo-Nazis are the new order of the day. The mayor of one town says: "You can't go into the forest without a knife anymore." [more inside]
posted by stbalbach at 10:54 AM PST - 109 comments

"Although the word “entitlement” fits, it’s been used so frequently as to have become inadequate to capture the preening self-regard, the obliviousness to the damage that high-flying finance has inflicted on the real economy, the learned blindness to vital considerations in the pay equation. Getting an education, or even hard work, does not guarantee outcomes. One of the basic precepts of finance is that of a risk-return tradeoff: high potential payoff investments come with greater downside. But how did that evolve into the current belief system among the incumbents, that Wall Street was a sure ride, a guaranteed “heads I win, tails you lose” bet?"

Yves Smith writes an essay on 'indefensible men.'
posted by ennui.bz at 10:04 AM PST - 38 comments

Those who have watched a lot of Hollywood movies over the past few years may have noticed a trend: many of these films sport a uniform palette of teal and orange, a result of the availability of digital colour-grading. Originally derived from applying complementary colour theory to human skin tones to make them stand out more, the teal-and-orange rule has spread, and is now being lazily applied across the board, whether appropriate or not.
posted by acb at 9:57 AM PST - 124 comments

Anyone who grew up playing video games understands the impact of the music. But the internet has allowed all sorts of people to express their love in many different ways. [more inside]
posted by restless_nomad at 9:11 AM PST - 33 comments

Tell that optimist, if he touches my glass again I'll knock his block off!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:36 AM PST - 47 comments

Everybody Have Fun. In 1978, a trio of psychologists curious about happiness assembled two groups of subjects. In the first were winners of the Illinois state lottery. These men and women had received jackpots of between fifty thousand and a million dollars. In the second group were victims of devastating accidents. How happy had they been before these events? How about now? How about expectations for the future? These and other results have shown that hitting the jackpot fails to lift spirits along with a whole range of activities that people tend to think will make them happy (getting a raise, moving to California, or having kid). Is the United States a nation of joyless lottery winners? And are there implications for public policy decisions?
posted by bluesky43 at 8:12 AM PST - 46 comments

The Psychology of the Taboo Trade-Off. A set of studies about issues that are considered "sacred" that can have an effect on the trade-offs involved in foreign policy. (via) [more inside]
posted by charred husk at 8:02 AM PST - 12 comments

Equine Inversion and other feats of four-dimensional rotation.
posted by Wolfdog at 6:54 AM PST - 35 comments

Musicologist, Writer, Radio Presenter, and Record Producer.
Charlie Gillett who died yesterday was the author of The Sound of the City (1970), which has been described as "the first comprehensive history of rock and roll". Gillett was also among the first DJs to champion Graham Parker, Ian Dury (whom he briefly managed) and Elvis Costello. However he is probably best known for sharing his passion for world music.

I just love this music for its own sake,’ he says. 'I don’t have any other agenda in presenting it. I genuinely believe it’s the best music there is.

[more inside]
posted by adamvasco at 4:52 AM PST - 18 comments

Dutch officials have rejected the retired US Supreme Allied Commander's claim that its forces failed at Srebrenica because of poor morale over openly gay soldiers. In 2010 General John J. "Jack" Sheehan (born 1940) - a retired United States Marine Corps general - testified to the US Congress that the Dutch told him that the fall of Sebrenica was related to the Dutch allowing openly gay men to serve in the military together with unionization and a decision to take a peace dividend because the Soviet threat was gone. During the same testimony, Sheehan claimed that sexual attraction between servicemembers of the same sex would have a negative impact on readiness, while attraction between men and women in gender-integrated units would not. His final active duty commands, culminating 35 years of service in the Marine Corps, were as the Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic (SACLANT) for NATO and as Commander-in-Chief for the U.S. Atlantic Command (CINCUSACOM) (1994–1997). [more inside]
posted by VikingSword at 11:27 PM PST - 74 comments

From TED 2010, Jane McGonigal asks if gaming can help create a better world. Previously.
posted by Rory Marinich at 5:32 PM PST - 73 comments

Move over Jedward. Ireland's most watched YouTube video is of family trio Crystal Swing - the wonderful Mary, Dervela and Derek. You may have seen them on Ellen's Paddy's Day show or RTE's The Late Late Show.
posted by honey-barbara at 5:15 PM PST - 44 comments

The Tale of JavaScript. I Mean ECMAScript. (MP4 version, slides) Yahoo! JavaScript architect Douglas Crockford, the creator of the JSLint JavaScript quality tool and the JSON data-interchange format, talks about what he says is simultaneously the worlds most popular and unpopular programming language. Previous JavaScript (sadly video linked by the FPP is down, try here). Previous Maniac Mansion. More video from MIX Online. A similar, more in depth talk at Google.
posted by Artw at 4:50 PM PST - 48 comments

Honk if you've missed a payment A disgruntled former car dealership employee was arrested in Austin for bricking 100+ cars using a dealer-installed debt collection black box. Made by Pay Technologies, the system allows the dealer to disable a car’s ignition system, or trigger the horn to begin honking, as a reminder that a payment is due.
posted by letitrain at 4:01 PM PST - 61 comments

Hirokazu "Hip" Tanaka brings together ten other people also named Hirokazu Tanaka, and they all sing a song about being named Hirokazu Tanaka.
You may know Hip Tanaka's other work already--he's one of the original chiptuners, having written the score for many popular Nintendo video games throughout the 1980's: [ Earthbound • 2 • 3 | Mother | Metroid (live) • 2 • 3 | Super Mario Land • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 | Tetris (arr.) | Balloon Fight | Fire Emblem | Kid Icarus ]
10-min Youtube (in French) which features his more famous works with accompanying gameplay • Interview • Interview • Bio
posted by not_on_display at 2:56 PM PST - 19 comments

UC Irvine neuroscientist James Fallon gives talks about the biological traits of psychopathic killers using brain scans and genetics. When his mother suggested he should look into his own biological traits, Dr. Fallon discovered that he has an inactive orbital cortex -- a common trait for psychopaths (pdf). He also found that he has all five gene variants linked to aggression, and is related to two infamous murderers. So, why isn't he a killer? He attributes it to nuture.
posted by jabberjaw at 2:49 PM PST - 52 comments

Scientists supersize quantum mechanics. "A team of scientists has succeeded in putting an object large enough to be visible to the naked eye into a mixed quantum state of moving and not moving."
posted by homunculus at 2:25 PM PST - 71 comments

David Byrne on Collaborations: "A writer at Pitchfork critically said I’d collaborate for a bag of Doritos. I do love it, and the results are sometimes surprising, sometimes creatively successful and sometimes even popular (“Lazy” was a huge hit everywhere except the US)." On song writing, "After the initial transcription of verbal sounds into nonsense sentences made of real words, a long, tedious process begins. I then begin to write out every phrase I can think of that matches that sonic/syllabic flow — no phrase is too mundane or stupid. I try not to pre-judge anything that occurs to me at this point — one never knows if something that sounded stupid at first will, in a new context, make the whole thing shine."
posted by geoff. at 2:06 PM PST - 41 comments

40 years ago, a small crew of filmmakers set out to document some of the more pressing issues involving wildlife in America. They made eight half-hour films around the country and in doing so made what is believed to be the first environmental TV series in the US. Entitled Our Vanishing Wilderness, all eight episodes are now online and free to view here.
posted by Effigy2000 at 1:22 PM PST - 4 comments

Mobutu Sese Seko of Et tu, Mr. Destructo? has written an excellent deconstruction of sitcom laugh tracks at Something Awful. (last embedded video is probably NSFW) [more inside]
posted by threetoed at 12:48 PM PST - 42 comments

Potency: a photo series of a baby dressed up as evil historical dictators by Nina Maria Kleivan.
posted by gman at 12:44 PM PST - 67 comments

Google Alleges That Viacom ‘Secretly Uploaded Its Content to YouTube, Even While Publicly Complaining About Its Presence There’ Zahavah Levine, chief counsel for YouTube in its litigation with Viacom, explains:

For years, Viacom continuously and secretly uploaded its content to YouTube, even while publicly complaining about its presence there. […] Viacom’s efforts to disguise its promotional use of YouTube worked so well that even its own employees could not keep track of everything it was posting or leaving up on the site. As a result, on countless occasions Viacom demanded the removal of clips that it had uploaded to YouTube, only to return later to sheepishly ask for their reinstatement. In fact, some of the very clips that Viacom is suing us over were actually uploaded by Viacom itself.

[via DF]
posted by ocherdraco at 12:23 PM PST - 49 comments

A new report from the Climate Action Network Canada- Réseau action climat Canada details a “troubling catalogue of actions” by the federal government to muzzle its own climate scientists and weaken the research capacity of Canada’s climate science community.
posted by dogbusonline at 12:19 PM PST - 16 comments

Joseph Casias recently decided, after 10 years, to alleviate the pain of his sinus cancer with medical marijuana--which is legal with a doctor's recommendation in Michigan. A commended Wal-Mart employee for five years, Casias was promptly fired by the company after failing a drug test. Now, Wal-Mart is working to deny Casias unemployment benefits.
posted by mrgrimm at 11:56 AM PST - 83 comments

On February 3, 2010, Autechre celebrated the month-early release of their new album Oversteps with a 12-hour netradio broadcast. [more inside]
posted by mkb at 11:47 AM PST - 42 comments

After decades of selling tampons and "sanitary products" with ads containing nebulous, euphemistic images and language, Kotex launched a new product line, 'U by Kotex' and a 'Declaration of Real Talk Campaign' to encourage girls and women to speak about menstruation without embarrassment. Ironically, their ad was rejected by the major US television networks for mentioning the word 'vagina'. Here's the 'safe for the viewing public' version. / YT channel. [more inside]
posted by zarq at 11:31 AM PST - 193 comments

First Lieutenant Dan Choi has been arrested after chaining himself to the White House fence. [more inside]
posted by Joe Beese at 11:11 AM PST - 157 comments

To promote mission awareness, NASA authorizes the creation of posters. Some may look familiar. Via Gizmodo.
posted by Atreides at 10:48 AM PST - 24 comments

The Pop Culture Translator
posted by Schlimmbesserung at 10:31 AM PST - 15 comments

Significantly what? ...Or how our most common statistical methods really weren't meant to be used that way and why that study result is likely spurious. Since mefites like to argue about stats, here's some background for us all (and I'm not talking correlation vs causation)!
posted by mandymanwasregistered at 10:20 AM PST - 51 comments

Click here? Was structuralism, the big idea of Claude Lévi-Strauss, more cult than science? Apostolos Doxiadis, Alecos Papadatos and Annie Di Donna – the team behind the bestselling graphic novel Logicomix – investigate.
posted by infini at 9:13 AM PST - 30 comments

Lessons learned from 2009’s high-profile rape cases.
posted by Neekee at 8:17 AM PST - 135 comments

The Daily Dish (no not that one): This is artist Klari Reis painting on petri dishes, creating surprisingly organic works of art.
posted by gwint at 7:38 AM PST - 9 comments

"When you see a wildlife photo or film that looks too good to be true, it probably is." Audubon Magazine's Ted Williams investigates game farms and the widespread use of captive animals in wildlife photography. (via) [more inside]
posted by The Mouthchew at 7:01 AM PST - 43 comments

That's What Bea Said
posted by sciurus at 6:07 AM PST - 24 comments

One World Technologies, manufacturer of Ryobi tools, has been ordered to pay damages of US$1.5 million to Carlos Osorio who injured his fingers while using a Ryobi table saw. The case hinged on the Ryobi's lack of "flesh sensing technology" which is found only SawStop's [previously] saws. [more inside]
posted by Mitheral at 12:27 AM PST - 225 comments

Open Library has a new collaborative open source website that aims to catalog every book ever published. About the project. The vision is one Wiki page for every edition of every work with description details.
posted by stbalbach at 9:24 PM PST - 14 comments

Scans of all three issues of Army Man Magazine, the legendary late 80s humor zine put together by future Simpsons' writer George Meyer (an excellent New Yorker profile of Meyer) which also included material from Jack Handey, John Swartzwelder, Bob Odenkirk, among many others. Another contributor, Ian Frazier, talks about Army Man in a Believer Interview. Sadly the scans are small (but the jokes are still big) and of poor quality. For a non-eyestraining introduction, Maud Newton transcribed a good bit of material and posted it at the end of an appreciation of Army Man on her blog.
posted by Kattullus at 8:19 PM PST - 25 comments

Twenty years ago tonight, thieves posing as Boston police talked their way into the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and left with thirteen works of art now valued at half a billion dollars, including a Vermeer and three Rembrandts. Neither those responsible for history's greatest art theft, nor the missing works of art, have ever been located. (Previously, including a comment from a MeFite who had been working security at the musuem, but not that night.)
posted by Horace Rumpole at 7:28 PM PST - 73 comments

A French, state-run TV channel appears to be stirring controversy by airing a documentary about a fake game show in which contestants torture eachother, called "Game of Death." Based on the well-known Stanley Milgram experiments of the 1960's that, in the wake of Nazi Germany, sought out to measure man's willingness to obey orders. [more inside]
posted by phaedon at 7:27 PM PST - 33 comments

Memphis music legend Alex Chilton dead at 59 Deep-voiced 60s boy singer and leader of "one of the most mythic and influential cult acts in all of rock and roll." Alex Chilton died today at age 59. Cause of death believed to be a heart attack.
posted by mediareport at 6:46 PM PST - 191 comments

A large gallery of contributed images from Spain including what looks to be an entertainer with a prosthetic nose and ear; a hand tinted baby in a bow and school photo; young tough guys and not so tough guys; plus old Semana Santa scenes, as posted previously. [more inside]
posted by tellurian at 6:45 PM PST - 6 comments

The original version of Alice in Wonderland, handwritten and hand-drawn by Lewis Carroll, has been posted online. The illustrations are a treat in themselves. [more inside]
posted by emilyd22222 at 6:08 PM PST - 26 comments

The Day My Arse Died Two men against the hottest curry known.
posted by cjorgensen at 4:47 PM PST - 91 comments

Hot Chip - I Feel Better
posted by stresstwig at 4:44 PM PST - 65 comments

Strippers and pr0n stars (and others) play D&D in web series I Hit It With My Axe at The Escapist. Interview with participant Satine Phoenix. Surprisingly pretty much SFW so far (no nudity but, as they say, salty language)
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 4:15 PM PST - 52 comments

Stuart Rojstaczer wrote an article in the Washington Post in 2003 detailing his experience as a professor with grade inflation at Duke. He has set up a website where he has aggregated data from the grades of two million undergraduates tracking the phenomenon. [more inside]
posted by Blasdelb at 3:45 PM PST - 59 comments

Eating healthy on a budget isn't just for hipsters on food stamps. While some have called Michael Pollan and Mark Bittman's ideas about cooking and eating "elitist," there are many cooks who are smart enough to know that cooking at home is the only way to eat healthy on a budget. While Jamie Oliver pledges to give all school children "10 recipes that will save their lives," almost anyone on any budget can change the way they shop for, prepare, and think about food. [more inside]
posted by sararah at 3:35 PM PST - 79 comments

Depression's upside. Could depression be an evolutionary gift? Could kindness? Charles Darwin himself had a history of ailments that may help to illustrate the idea.
posted by stinkycheese at 3:24 PM PST - 41 comments

Culture Jam: Hijacking Corporate Culture [39m CBC Short Cuts version on Google Video] is an overview of "culture jamming". [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 2:40 PM PST - 24 comments

"In May, 2002, Jerome Mitchell, a 17-year old college freshman from rural South Carolina, learned he had contracted HIV. The news, of course, was devastating, but Mitchell believed that he had one thing going for him: On his own initiative, in anticipation of his first year in college, he had purchased his own health insurance. Shortly after his diagnosis, however, his insurance company, Fortis [now Assurant Health], revoked his policy. Mitchell was told that without further treatment his HIV would become full-blown AIDS within a year or two and he would most likely die within two years after that." [more inside]
posted by ericb at 2:03 PM PST - 139 comments

Kim Jong-il, the Supreme Leader of North Korea, has a $4 billion (£2.6 billion) “emergency fund” hidden in secret accounts in European banks that he will use to continue his lavish way of life if he is forced to flee the country.
posted by Tlery at 1:59 PM PST - 36 comments

Live online broadcast of the 2010 Paralympic Games (Silverlight required). The Paralympics are back, this time in Vancouver. Sledge hockey, alpine & cross-country skiing, biathalon and curling. You can watch every event live or recorded on ParalympicSport.tv or see some photos at The Big Picture.
posted by GuyZero at 1:31 PM PST - 11 comments

The FDA has yet to approve stem cell therapies for general use in medicine, but that hasn’t stopped doctors in Colorado from providing them anyway. [more inside]
posted by zarq at 11:25 AM PST - 49 comments

If you'd like something to work on today other than your pint of Guinness, why not take a crack at "one of Australia's most profound mysteries," a sixty-two-year-old unsolved murder known as the Taman Shud case? [more inside]
posted by sallybrown at 8:45 AM PST - 75 comments

I like bagpipes. And I'm not afraid to admit it. They can be traditional, rock, or cross-cultural. They may have been around since ancient Rome. It's the instrument everyone claims to hate, but who can really hate a good drone?
posted by rusty at 8:40 AM PST - 80 comments

Sure, big numbers are fine. But infinity (in the set theoretic sense) is where the fun really starts. Developed almost entirely by one man in the late 19th century, set theory now forms the foundation of modern mathematics. Cantor showed that not all infinite sets are the same size. Notably, while there are just as many integers as rational numbers, there are more real numbers than integers. These results, along with others that soon followed like the axiom of choice, led to several fascinating consequences: [more inside]
posted by kmz at 6:24 AM PST - 161 comments

Russel Cox, one of the people behind Google's new programming language Go, has written a three part series on regular expressions. It's a nice mix of computer science theory, programming, and history: Regular Expression Matching Can Be Simple And Fast, Regular Expression Matching: the Virtual Machine Approach, and Regular Expression Matching in the Wild.
posted by chunking express at 5:55 AM PST - 57 comments

"Chris Supranowitz is a researcher at The Insitute of Optics at the University of Rochester. Along with a number of other spectacular studies (such as quantum optics, trapping of atoms, dark states and entanglement), Chris has decided to look at the relatively boring grooves of a vinyl record using the institute’s electron microscope." More complete study here.
posted by gman at 4:24 AM PST - 37 comments

With all props to wearers of the green, also note it was twenty years ago today bassist Rick Grech found his way home. [more inside]
posted by timsteil at 4:24 AM PST - 4 comments

CSPAN has has just put their entire video archive online.
posted by twoleftfeet at 3:55 AM PST - 17 comments

This American Infographic. This American Infographic is a web site where the goal is to make an infographic on every This American Life ever made.
posted by filmgeek at 3:51 AM PST - 24 comments

A tunnel in Paris becomes famous [more inside]
posted by _dario at 10:56 PM PST - 73 comments

Reggie Bibbs has neurofibromatosis, and he has made it his life's mission to educate people about the disfiguring disease. Besides going to lots of big public events, he's got a Facebook page, a Flickr site, a Myspace page, and a YouTube channel, and he founded a nonprofit to help raise awareness of NF.
posted by yiftach at 10:00 PM PST - 12 comments

While nobody has been executed in Australia since 1967 and no capital punishments have been on any state books since 1984 there has been the possibility that a state government could reintroduce the death penalty. Today the Australian Senate passed the Crimes Legislation Amendment (Torture Prohibition and Death Penalty Abolition) Bill 2009 without amendment which effectively blocks states from reintroducing the death penalty as soon as the bill received the royal assent. Needless to say, pro-death penalty advocates were up in arms over the vote.
posted by Talez at 8:14 PM PST - 33 comments

In January, Google Australia agreed to take down links to the Encyclopedia Dramatica. The Australian Human Rights Commission has now written to the owner of the ED threatening legal action. [more inside]
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 7:52 PM PST - 119 comments

Human flesh search engines in China. Sometimes it's cute. Mostly it's not. [more inside]
posted by availablelight at 6:38 PM PST - 44 comments

Ping pong, school, gardening... days in the life of a 12-year-old, circa 1975 and posted to a blog 30+ years after the fact. [more inside]
posted by Jahaza at 6:37 PM PST - 9 comments

A Nazi zombie invasion!? Yep, it's the Worst Case Scenario [more inside]
posted by P.o.B. at 6:29 PM PST - 35 comments

The Florida Family Policy Council, a conservative Christian organization, sent out an alert to its members about judge’s ruling to allow a lesbian couple to adopt a relative’s child that they had been fostering. It included an image that was purported to be of the couple. It wasn't. [more inside]
posted by emilyd22222 at 5:59 PM PST - 87 comments

A NYTimes columnist just comes out and says it: America's taxes should be higher. The Perils of Pay Less, Get More. [more inside]
posted by The Devil Tesla at 5:43 PM PST - 217 comments

Today a New Jersey state appeals court ruled that the secretary of state must accept a petition filed by the Sussex County Tea Party to recall US Senator Robert Menendez - the first ever recall effort aimed at a US Senator. Their petition was originally denied by Secretary of State Nina Mitchell Wells back in January. The debate over recall elections has persisted for centuries in the US, with it notably being a part of the Virginia Plan that was proposed at the Constitutional Convention. Are recalls a good way to make senators accountable to their electorate? Or would they make senators slaves to the ever changing whims of the people? Here is a brief history of the recall in the US.
posted by Consonants Without Vowels at 5:27 PM PST - 45 comments

Maybe you'd be interested in full, downloadable live concerts by Iggy Pop and David Bowie (1977), P. J. Harvey (1992), Neko Case (2006), or the Arcade Fire (2008)? The online, L.A.-based music publication Web in Front hosts a terrific collection of concert podcasts from rock bands and songsmiths of every era. From Talking Heads (1979) to Pavement and Dinosaur Jr. (1994); from dour troubadours like Lou Reed (1976) to dour troubadours like Nick Cave (1998), it's an inexhaustible trove. (Recent podcasts.)
posted by cirripede at 5:05 PM PST - 25 comments

Professors at NYU's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute will soon be voting on "The Top Ten Works of Journalism of the Decade". There are 80 nominees.
posted by aheckler at 5:02 PM PST - 11 comments

Desktop Dungeons offers an unquestionably unique approach to Roguelike games by taking compactness to the extreme. It distills the entire genre to a few core ideas which pay homage to the greats while forging new ground with gameplay similar to that of Oasis or Tower of the Sorcerer. It also features emergent complexity that rewards truly skilled and thoughtful players.
posted by painquale at 4:15 PM PST - 60 comments

Andrée Peel, Rescuer of Allied Airmen, Dies at 105. Andree Peel, (born Andrée Marthe Virot) who was known as Agent Rose, helped 102 British and American pilots escape from her native France. 'She was the most highly decorated woman to survive the conflict and was awarded the Legion d'Honneur by her brother, General Maurice Virot. Mrs Peel was awarded the War Cross with palm, the War Cross with purple star, the medal of the Resistance and the Liberation cross. She also received the American Medal of Freedom from US President Dwight Eisenhower, as well as the King's Commendation for Brave Conduct, presented to her by King George VI.' 'She fed information to the Allies on German shipping and troop movements and on the results of Allied bombing in the region. She also guided British planes carrying intelligence agents to nighttime landings at secret airstrips marked by torchlight.' [more inside]
posted by VikingSword at 4:11 PM PST - 18 comments

Lady GaGa covers: Pomplamoose covers Telephone, Molly Lewis covers Poker Face, We the Kings cover Paparazzi, and another cover of Poker Face from Amanda Palmer and the Boston Pops. (The second Poker Face link is probably NSFW.)
posted by Caduceus at 2:36 PM PST - 90 comments

The FCC has announced its National Broadband Plan.
posted by pjern at 2:27 PM PST - 28 comments

Excessive cardio is linked with heart disease, according to some recent studies examining marathon runners and markers for coronary risk [more inside]
posted by scrutiny at 1:46 PM PST - 73 comments

Yes folks, it's March and that can mean many things. College basketball, allergies or MARCH MODOK MADNESS! via Chris Sims at Comics Alliance
posted by the biscuit man at 1:38 PM PST - 9 comments

The source Fr. Amoth refers to, according to Fr. Fortea, is the demons who are being exorcised. Of this, the Spanish priest wrote that knowing whether or not the demon is telling the truth "is in many cases impossible." "We can know with great confidence when a demon tells the truth in the subject directly related with the exorcism. That is, the number of demons, their name and similar things. But we cannot be confident in what regards concrete news relating to people." [more inside]
posted by ServSci at 1:32 PM PST - 57 comments

Ben Abraham decided to play the game Far Cry 2 with a few self-imposed rules. Most importantly, when he died in the game, he would be dead forever. This saga, Permanent Death, is available as a gorgeous, 391-page (!) PDF file, or on his old blog, in post format. [more inside]
posted by Askiba at 12:17 PM PST - 57 comments

Culture, Relativism, and Bank Ads
posted by jtron at 12:11 PM PST - 33 comments

In its latest issue, the American Book Review has taken stock of literature and come up with its Top 40 Bad Books [pdf]. Faced with the unusual Top 40 list (which is not strictly a list and includes, among other things, The Great Gatsby) Alison Flood at the Guardian responds by asking, "What makes a bad book bad?" while at the L.A. Times, Carolyn Kellogg puts forth that the list's only constant is "that the best books that appear on their worst-book list are subject to the most unreasonable critiques." [more inside]
posted by ocherdraco at 9:49 AM PST - 100 comments

"At first, I thought, 'Why should I be on food stamps?'" said Magida, digging into her dinner. "Here I am, this educated person who went to art school, and there are a lot of people who need them more. But then I realized, I need them, too." Salon takes a look at the growing wave of young people utilizing food stamps.
posted by porn in the woods at 8:49 AM PST - 868 comments

After being beaten into a brain-damaging coma by five men outside a bar, Mark Hogancamp built a 1/6th scale World War II-era town in his backyard. Mark populated the town he dubbed "Marwencol" with dolls representing his friends and family and created life-like photographs detailing the town's many relationships and dramas. Playing in the town and photographing the action helped Mark to recover his hand-eye coordination and deal with the psychic wounds from the attack. [more inside]
posted by dobbs at 8:33 AM PST - 39 comments

David Livingston's [NSFW] Big Dick series [NSFW] features the artist walking around Park Slope [N-even-the-url-is-SFW] and other New York neighborhoods wearing "immense pink genitalia" [YGTI].
posted by Combustible Edison Lighthouse at 8:13 AM PST - 38 comments

Nusch Éluard was The Surrealists' enigmatic muse. She was a model for Man Ray and Picasso and Lee Miller. In fact All the boys loved Nusch. Perhaps the most ethereal portrait was taken by photographer Dora Maar (previously). Here is tumblir tagged page and Orchid-thief. ( As this is Surrealism and Paris in the early C20th – this FPP is considered NSFW in some environments. )
posted by adamvasco at 7:31 AM PST - 9 comments

Nine months after Michael Jackson’s death, his estate has signed one of the biggest recording contracts in history, giving Sony, Mr. Jackson’s longtime label, the rights to sell his back catalog and draw on a large vault of unheard recordings.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:49 AM PST - 77 comments

Tired of leveling up your mafia and building your farm? Get right to the heart of the matter with Progress Wars!
posted by jbickers at 4:21 AM PST - 43 comments

Do you have a life-changing medical condition? Patientslikeme (mentioned previously in a 2008 post on mood conditions) is a way for you share information online with other people who have the same condition. Some of the conditions with groups established already are epilepsy, depression, and Multiple Sclerosis. Started by 3 MIT engineers who had personal experiences with ALS (Lou Gherig's disease), the site is funded by partnerships with healthcare providers who have access to anonymised data about the member base. The stated goal in their Openness Policy is to speed up the pace of research and help fix the broken (US) health system. The Privacy Policy has a plain-English description of what happens to information that members share.
posted by harriet vane at 3:47 AM PST - 14 comments

The future of Cape Wind will be loudly contested for another few weeks. The latest wrinkle seems to be conflicting claims about the project's impact on sacred Wampanoag rituals and cultural heritage. There might even be a movie about it all. Previously. [more inside]
posted by vrakatar at 10:39 PM PST - 19 comments

Swimming with Great White sharks Mike Rutzen is an expert on the great white shark and an outspoken champion of shark conservation. His fame spread due to the images of his free diving exploits swimming with the animals without a cage. Mike has spent more time swimming cage-less with great whites than anyone else. He has since travelled the world lecturing on sharks and filming documentaries on them... [More video] [more inside]
posted by KokuRyu at 10:23 PM PST - 26 comments

Everyone knows about the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, right? Pursuant to this authoritative source I learned of Erdos numbers, which are fascinating in their own right, but not nearly as much as Erdos-Bacon numbers. Sir Alec Guiness does surprisingly well with a 3. Bacon does not. [more inside]
posted by Elagabalus at 10:03 PM PST - 60 comments

750words.com is a simple, free site which challenges you to write 750 words (~3 pages) every day and tracks your results. The notes from happy patrons are inspiring. [more inside]
posted by ejoey at 9:54 PM PST - 41 comments

The "Still Face" Paradigm (YT video) designed by Dr. Edward Tronick of Harvard and Childrens Hospital’s Child Development Unit, is an experiment which shows us how a 1-year old child will react to a suddenly unresponsive parent. It allows us to understand how a caregiver's interactions and emotional state can influence many aspects of an infant's social and emotional development. [more inside]
posted by zarq at 9:48 PM PST - 22 comments

A cosmically selective process: you enter a white cab in Chicago. After the usual pleasantries, the driver asks you if you'd like to hear a song...
posted by Iridic at 9:44 PM PST - 15 comments

Still reeling from losing that hour of sleep Saturday night? Check out this catchy old country tune from old-time banjo-playing sensation Louis Marshall "Grandpa" Jones in which Grandpa rants about Daylight Savings Time. [more inside]
posted by hiteleven at 9:11 PM PST - 29 comments

What happens when you mix Iranian Americans and the U.S. Census?
posted by stratastar at 7:36 PM PST - 69 comments

The supersonic jump of Felix Baumgartner. previously [more inside]
posted by Xurando at 7:22 PM PST - 12 comments

Top 50 Gay TV Characters. (Full list.)
Some stats and commentary about that list.
Top 50 Lesbian and Bisexual Characters.
posted by crossoverman at 6:29 PM PST - 91 comments

Many people who paint portraits try to make the painting look like a living person. Alexa Meade tries to make the person look like a painting. [more inside]
posted by emilyd22222 at 5:42 PM PST - 30 comments

"Every hard drive in the world will eventually fail. Assume that yours are all on the cusp of failure at all times." An Ode to DiskWarrior, SuperDuper, and Dropbox: John Gruber talks about his Mac's hard drive failing and how he was able to recover all of his data using DiskWarrior, a file recovery utility, SuperDuper!, a backup utility that creates a fully bootable backup, and the file syncing system DropBox. While his advice is Mac specific, you can get a similar system going on Windows with Acronis for backups and one of many free file recovery programs such as TestDisk (which also has a Mac version). [more inside]
posted by The Devil Tesla at 5:23 PM PST - 90 comments

An excellent set of illustrations from a French Sherlock Holmes collection. Let us attempt to sleuth out the stories to which these great little pieces of art belong.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 5:05 PM PST - 9 comments

The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit rules that once emails have been received by a third party, no Fourth Amendment protection applies to any copies. In Rehburg v. Paulik, among other claims, Charles Rehburg alleged a violation of his constitutional rights by the improper subpoena of his emails from his ISP. Last week, the Eleventh Circuit ruled against him: [more inside]
posted by PMdixon at 5:01 PM PST - 45 comments

SLYT: Chatroulette piano improvisation
posted by Jimbob at 4:21 PM PST - 61 comments

Last November 23rd, upwards of 64 people (including at least 34 journalists) were killed in the Philippines. It has become known as the Maguindanao Massacre. [more inside]
posted by stinkycheese at 4:09 PM PST - 21 comments

Fun fact: Cannibals didn't necessarily boil people alive, but that doesn't mean that it hasn't been used as a form of execution. [Via AskMe.]
posted by grapefruitmoon at 3:54 PM PST - 52 comments

Brian Switek, David Williams and Michael Welland have started a series of blog posts about writing popular science books. (Switek's overview.) [more inside]
posted by brundlefly at 2:56 PM PST - 4 comments

Salt & Fat is an enjoyable cooking blog.
posted by chunking express at 2:45 PM PST - 23 comments

A lot of people figure things out, but it takes a special talent or maybe personality to figure it our and do something about it. Previously, we heard about the man who wrote the software that blew up the economy. Now we find out whom that software was written. [more inside]
posted by JohnnyGunn at 2:27 PM PST - 39 comments

People have been upset about Pluto's demotion for some time now. (While classical music fans have just had a love/hate relationship with this whole process.) But astronomical hate mail has never been as cute as the missives Neil deGrasse Tyson has received over the years from tots upset at poor Pluto's ouster.
posted by greekphilosophy at 1:51 PM PST - 46 comments

From a 2008 document titled "Wikileaks.org—An Online Reference to Foreign Intelligence Services, Insurgents, or Terrorist Groups?" (PDF) produced by the Cyber Counterintelligence Assessments Branch of the Army Counterintelligence Center:

(S//NF) Wikileaks.org uses trust as a center of gravity by assuring insiders, leakers, and whistleblowers who pass information to Wikileaks.org personnel or who post information to the Web site that they will remain anonymous. The identification, exposure, or termination of employment of or legal actions against current or former insiders, leakers, or whistleblowers could damage or destroy this center of gravity and deter others from using Wikileaks.org to make such information public.

posted by scalefree at 1:46 PM PST - 31 comments

Irrespective of whether you exercise vigorously, sitting for long periods is bad for you. 'Your chair is your enemy. It doesn’t matter if you go running every morning, or you’re a regular at the gym. If you spend most of the rest of the day sitting — in your car, your office chair, on your sofa at home — you are putting yourself at increased risk of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, a variety of cancers and an early death.' 'Several strands of evidence suggest that there’s a “physiology of inactivity”: that when you spend long periods sitting, your body actually does things that are bad for you.' [more inside]
posted by VikingSword at 1:22 PM PST - 137 comments

The concealed artist behind the quirky videos posted on the iamamiwhoami account on YouTube has uploaded another video, and in the process helped to reveal her identity. [more inside]
posted by cashman at 12:57 PM PST - 31 comments

View, rotate, and interact with fascinating 3D scans of some of humanity's oldest artifacts. [more inside]
posted by SpringAquifer at 10:55 AM PST - 6 comments

A man, a balloon and bad luck. (SLYT) A man records himself trying to get into an enormous balloon. His running commentary is Frink like.
posted by zerobyproxy at 10:30 AM PST - 63 comments

The 2010 World Expo starts on May 1st, and The Big Picture has documented the Shanghai's preparations for the event. Highlights include the Seed Cathedral, covered in 60,000 thin acrylic rods that will sway in the breeze; the Sunny Valley, a structure that will harness sunlight for power and rain to water nearby green areas, Joy Street, a Dr. Seussian part of the Dutch Pavillion, and an assortment of other engineering marvels. More information about the Expo available at the World Expo Blog. [more inside]
posted by JDHarper at 10:15 AM PST - 16 comments

The Vincent Van Gogh Museum (previously) is undertaking a complete restoration of The Bedroom (or Bedroom in Arles), one of Van Gogh's best-known paintings. The staff members working on the restoration have started a blog to document the entire process.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 9:35 AM PST - 20 comments

Marc Brown's Arthur series about a curious aardvark started with the bedtime stories he made up for his own children. Each one of the Arthur books contains Easter Eggs in the form of the author's children's names.

Hugely popular, the series of books spawned an animated show on PBS. In the 13th season of the show (beginning April 5th), Arthur and his pals will make a new friend, Carl. Carl has Asperger's. Still not sure what that is? That's okay, let Brain explain it for you.
posted by misha at 9:25 AM PST - 151 comments

I Love Dick is composed of the billet doux written by [Chris] Kraus and husband, Columbia philosopher Sylvere Lotringer, to their special friend, Dick. As a kind of art-world roman a clef, the novel fuses gossip and "theory." The profanely and lustfully personal coalesces with intellectual ambition and conceit.
posted by Joe Beese at 9:11 AM PST - 21 comments

We previously debated How many five year olds could you take in a fight? - mefi discussion. Now in a related event professional J. League football team Cerezo Osaka take on a team of 100 Japanese primary school children.
Part 1 (including pre-match analysis in Japanese - kick off at 5 min 50) Part 2 Part 3.

There was a winner - but who?! Direct links to the goals 1 2 3 4 5
posted by therubettes at 8:30 AM PST - 46 comments

Curious about the Average Shot Length of a movie? Wondering how the ASL has changed over time? The Cinemetrics database comes to the rescue with statistical data on shot length!
posted by burnfirewalls at 8:29 AM PST - 19 comments

A quarter of a century ago, today, symbolics.com was registered. [more inside]
posted by sid.tv at 7:49 AM PST - 38 comments

Combination Chinese restaurants-doughnut shops are common sights in California strip malls... But how did they get to be that way? The Atlantic investigates. Strangely enough, most are owned by Cambodians.
posted by huskerdont at 5:31 AM PST - 112 comments

Google Reader Play
posted by anotherpanacea at 1:39 AM PST - 37 comments

"I used to say that Ali was the best I'd ever seen," says Arum, an industry legend who co-promoted the Ali-Frazier "Thrilla in Manila" in 1975. "I had never said that about another man. I don't use those words cheaply. But here it is: Manny Pacquiao is the best I have ever seen, including Ali.
posted by AceRock at 9:34 PM PST - 59 comments

"Joey, have you ever been in a Turkish prison?" Veteran actor Peter Graves--who was the star of the original Mission Impossible TV series, most famously (for some of us) played Capt. Oveur in Airplane!, and was the Emmy-winning host of Biography--has died of natural causes. He was 83.
posted by zardoz at 9:09 PM PST - 91 comments

Remember the many news stories about the femicides in Ciudad Juarez? Since 1993, hundreds of mutilated female bodies had turned up in the deserts surrounding this border city, and these horrific crimes have never been solved. Several books have been written on the subject; you might also recall that Jennifer Lopez made a movie about it. But now, with the (gender-neutral) bloodbath that Ciudad Juarez has turned into, it is shocking, indeed offensive, yet true, that we can look back at the decade of femicides as being relatively peaceful when compared to current events. The annual murder rate is now in the thousands (compared to just a few hundred per decade for the femicides), making CJ the most dangerous city in the world, more so than Baghdad, Caracas, or Port-au-Prince. [more inside]
posted by math at 9:01 PM PST - 74 comments

The etheric, tectonic tones of Tuvan throat signing are familiar to every world music aficionado. While the singing style itself is captures the spotlight, the Igil, a sort of half-violin, half-banjo , is the traditional accompaniment of the steppe musician.

John Pascuzzi of A Single Thread combines the finger-and-bow work of a classical violinist with electronica and a traditional Igil to produce haunting, dark, gripping, arrangements that really rock.
posted by clarknova at 7:41 PM PST - 18 comments

After 200 years, The Annual Cooper's Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake at Cooper's Hill, near Gloucester in England has been canceled due to health and safety fears. (Official site.) The BBC devotes a section of their site to the event, and both ESPN and The Big Picture covered it last year. Previously [more inside]
posted by zarq at 6:35 PM PST - 31 comments

Digital: A Love Story a mystery/romance downloadable game for windows/mac/linux by Christine Sarah Love set in the days of BBSes. Features a glorious retro-OS style interface. Mini review by indie dev Auntie Pixelante/Anna Anthropy (recently). Writeup at and via TIGSource.
posted by juv3nal at 5:46 PM PST - 30 comments

Phoebe, a non-migratory Channel Islands Allen's Hummingbird, has a live webcam and eggs that are hatching soon.
posted by jjray at 5:29 PM PST - 23 comments

It may increase schadenfreude. It's an assistant to abortifacients and it's produced by stimulating the nipples. Got a clogged lizard? Your mom used it to turn off your brain for your own good. In women, it peaks at orgasm, but in men, it might be elevated throughout sex without peaking. And what do you mean "social" monogamy!? Is it the love 'em and leave 'em hormone?? Well, it's NOT Vasopressin For Her, contrary to what some people think. Is it an impedance to feminism? Could it be the key to treating Autism? Ism... ism... jism? YEP. It's in the jism! Its synthesis was the end of A Trail of Sulfa Research, and its master was awarded the Nobel Prize. (Chemistry, not Peace.) You can scent your loveletters with it, but sorry, peaches... you can't huff a good cuddle, but you might like to huff while you cuddle. Previously.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 5:17 PM PST - 48 comments

We ♥ Mac and Cheese
posted by ardgedee at 3:41 PM PST - 119 comments

Russia's Wooden Churches - A century after celebrated Russian illustrator Ivan Bilibin called for preservation of Russia's decaying wooden churches, architectural photographer Richard Davies revisits the churches to document and raise awareness of these gorgeous historic architectural treasures. [more inside]
posted by madamjujujive at 1:51 PM PST - 28 comments

"In the safety of The Sanctum, where they depend on each other for anonymity, superheroes unveil the personal circumstances that have led them to a life of addiction and loneliness." Episode 1: Jason's Story. [more inside]
posted by The Mouthchew at 12:07 PM PST - 13 comments

Orwell Rolls In His Grave [trailer, Google Video 1h43m] is a 2003 documentary exploring the Fourth Estate, corporate ownership, and the power to control public perception. [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 11:43 AM PST - 14 comments

Man's best friend, bedbugs' worst enemy?
posted by prefpara at 8:32 AM PST - 65 comments

The Heavy performing on Late Night, with "an unprecedented encore by request from Dave." (second video courtesy CBS, including off-air encore) [more inside]
posted by hypersloth at 7:01 AM PST - 93 comments

Pierre de Coubertin is well-known as the father of the modern Olympics. What is less well-known is that he pseudonymously won an Olympic medal - in poetry (PDF) [more inside]
posted by Dim Siawns at 6:22 AM PST - 5 comments

Beheaded Vikings found at Olympic site. Last year workmen for the 2012 Olympics sailing venue in southern England came upon a grisly discovery: fifty-one men had been severely injured, most of them beheaded, and tossed into a mass grave. [more inside]
posted by three blind mice at 5:22 AM PST - 78 comments

The Joydick (NSFW) is a wearable haptic device for controlling video gameplay based on realtime male masturbation. Construction photographs.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 11:54 PM PST - 62 comments

The Free Art and Technology (F.A.T.) Lab is an organization dedicated to enriching the public domain through the research and development of creative technologies and media. You may know them from such projects as How to build a fake Google Street View car, public domain donor stickers, internet famous class, the first rap video to end with a download source code link, or their numerous firefox add-ons (such as China Channel, Tourettes Machine, or Back to the future). FAT members have been hard at work standardizing various open source graffiti-related software packages, including Graffiti Analysis, Laser Tag, Fat Tag Deluxe and EyeWriter [previously] to be GML (Graffiti Markup Language) compliant. Fuck Google. Fuck Twitter. FuckFlickr. Fuck SXSW. Fuck 3D. FAT Lab is Kanye shades for the open source movement.
posted by finite at 11:00 PM PST - 8 comments

A one-hour dramatic television series.
Action - Adventure - Science Fiction.
The first such concept with strong central leas characters plus other continuing regulars.

Gene Roddenberry's original pitchfor Star Trek (.pdf) - featuring Robert M. April, captain of the S.S. Yorktown. (via)
posted by Artw at 10:34 PM PST - 43 comments

Debbie Almontaser, who was set to be the principal of a new dual language Arab-English school in 2007, was instead pushed out and forced to resign after she answered the question "What is the root word of 'intifada'?" She answered "shaking off" and many in the news media ran with this as a story. Things didn't go well for her after that, until a federal panel yesterday concluded that she had been discriminated against.
posted by i'm being pummeled very heavily at 9:58 PM PST - 46 comments

For the last year or so, Frederik Pohl has been quietly blogging. [more inside]
posted by Pinback at 9:45 PM PST - 24 comments

There is now empirical evidence for the Extended Mind hypothesis. (See also this related pdf)
posted by anotherpanacea at 8:21 PM PST - 73 comments

This is the biggest ego battle in history. It looked like the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Today, such warmth is in short supply. One well-connected Silicon Valley investor, who did not want to be identified talking about the Google-Apple feud, says he is stunned by the level of rancor he’s witnessed. “It’s World War III. Amazing animosity is motivating two of the most powerful people in the industry,” he says. “This is emotional. This is the biggest ego battle in history. It’s incendiary.”
posted by fixedgear at 8:11 PM PST - 200 comments

Data Analysis for Politics and Policy was written by Edward Tufte in 1974. It's an introduction to basic data analysis techniques with examples taken from the social sciences. The book is written in a friendly, conversational tone and is only 179 pages long. The chapter explaining simple linear regression is the heart of the book.
posted by Jasper Friendly Bear at 7:40 PM PST - 13 comments

In Sizing Up Sperm, people dressed in all white literally act out the role of sperm in the race to become one with the egg, running through valleys, squeezing through spirals, battling Leukocytes and much more. The results are stunning and the program airs this Sunday, March 14 on National Geographic. It just so happens that Slate also got in on the ejaculation meme, and delivered an article on a story of sperm donors and DNA tracing in Are Sperm Donors Really Anonymous Anymore? [via] [more inside]
posted by netbros at 4:45 PM PST - 26 comments

"This strangely shaped structure at Calixtlahuaca represents the wind-god Ehécatl and his ability to pass where he will." Could this enigmatic example of Postclassic period Mesoamerician Architecture be any more fascinating with a dubious ancient Roman head? Archeologist M.E.Smith has some advice for T.V. producers. "And no, the world will NOT end in 2012." [more inside]
posted by ovvl at 4:03 PM PST - 11 comments

"Fed up with government gridlock, but put off by the flavor of the Tea Party, people in cities across the country are offering an alternative: the Coffee Party. Growing through a Facebook page, the party pledges to “support leaders who work toward positive solutions, and hold accountable those who obstruct them.” (from the New York Times article) [more inside]
posted by Daddy-O at 12:39 PM PST - 62 comments

The Pope was drawn directly into the Roman Catholic sex abuse scandal last night as news emerged of his part in a decision to send a paedophile priest for therapy. The cleric went on to reoffend and was convicted of child abuse but continues to work as a priest in Upper Bavaria. [more inside]
posted by Joe Beese at 8:19 AM PST - 301 comments

Netflix has ended the $1 million Next Big Thing contest, which would have rewarded a team to improve their recommendation engine. [more inside]
posted by mccarty.tim at 7:24 AM PST - 63 comments

Obesity: The killer combination of salt, fat and sugar - "Rewarding foods are rewiring our brains. As they do, we become more sensitive to the cues that lead us to anticipate the reward. In that circularity lies a trap: we can no longer control our responses to highly palatable foods because our brains have been changed by the foods we eat." [more inside]
posted by Mick at 7:21 AM PST - 104 comments

"George Lucas made "Star Wars"; but it was the fans who turned it into a seemingly undying worldwide phenomenon. So I thought it appropriate to give them a prominent voice in the documentary." The People vs. George Lucas premiered at this year's SXSW. Official Site. FB page. More.
posted by zarq at 7:00 AM PST - 42 comments

The September 2008 colapse of Lehman Bros. was the percipaticing event which channged a credit crunch to a panic. The examiner apointed by the bancrupcy court has produced a 2200 page report about what went wrong. The whole report is here. Summaries and links to analysis after the jump. [more inside]
posted by shothotbot at 7:00 AM PST - 31 comments

The Big Picture displays recent photos released by the KCNA of Kim Jong-il giving "on-the-spot" field guidance.
posted by gman at 6:56 AM PST - 63 comments

From the Borough of Brooklyn comes Dollar Van Demos: a showcase of talented musicians, rappers and comedians performing inside a dollar van with real passengers. [more inside]
posted by Drexen at 6:39 AM PST - 7 comments

Variations on The Tablecloth Trick [more inside]
posted by HuronBob at 5:24 AM PST - 28 comments

"The Remains of War" is an article by Carolin Emcke a journalist, political theorist and writer.
Since 2007 she has worked as an international reporter for the German weekly "Die Zeit” Other than her last book, “Echoes of Violence”; little of Emcke’s work has been translated into English from German. But Emcke, who has a doctorate in philosophy and is a war correspondent for Die Zeit, has begun posting translations of her articles.
posted by adamvasco at 5:14 AM PST - 3 comments

Verne revisited. Issac guesses.
posted by Mblue at 2:59 AM PST - 15 comments

Tiny & Big. Help Tiny recover his grandfather's magical underpants of teleportation stolen by the nefarious Big. A demo for a 3D physics puzzler involving a cutting laser and grappling hook. Youtube preview. Available for OSX (10.5), Windows, & Linux (32bit, 64bit).
posted by juv3nal at 11:27 PM PST - 18 comments

Broadband.gov -- the FCC wants you to have broadband, and to get what you're paying for. They've created a site which will benchmark your broadband for you.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 10:47 PM PST - 70 comments

Opera lovers embrace tree-hugger! Opera Australia presented Bliss, an opera based on Peter Carey's 1981 Kafka-esque novel last night. 'Carey's story was set in a tropical city that could well be Brisbane. And the idyll depicted in the final chapter of a free, clothing-optional, communal life seemed to mirror Carey's experience: the author and former ad man once lived on a commune at Yandina, north of Brisbane.' Harry Joy is an unlikely hero, 'a bit of an idiot really' but his tree-change journey is a timely one, and is garnering international interest. Australian mefites can watch Bliss live from Sydney Opera House next week on ABC2.
posted by honey-barbara at 7:23 PM PST - 7 comments

1. Create a record label named "Unknown."
2. Form a band named "Various Artists."
3. (step 3 not required)
4. PROFIT!
No, really: Please take your royalty check Royalties are piling up from digital music streams, and a nonprofit has to track down artists who don't know. Then it has to convince them it's not a scam.
posted by planetkyoto at 6:21 PM PST - 19 comments

After years of meticulous research of historic documents, mapping, modeling, texturing, and trying to convince a video game released in 1998 to do something it was never intended to be capable of, the 72 kilometer, 567-turn Piccolo circuito delle Madonie was released as a community add-on track for Grand Prix Legends last September. The track was home of the Targa Florio from 1932 to 1936 and 1951 to 1977, and is made up of curving, winding mountain roads in the Sicilian countryside, and is beautifully recreated in the game. Best of all, it's absolutely free.
posted by clorox at 5:54 PM PST - 20 comments

After more than ten hours of deliberation, Vance Bunker, along with his daughter Janan Miller, were found not guilty. The result of last summer's so called "lobster wars".
posted by woodjockey at 3:36 PM PST - 30 comments

The "vaccine court" branch of the United States Court of Claims rejected claims in three test cases that mercury preservative in vaccines caused autism. The magistrates of the court ruled in three of over 5,000 pending cases. The three cases were considered the strongest of the claims brought. A little over a year ago, the court also rejected claims that the MMR vaccine causes autism. The burden of proof on the families bringing claims was only to show that the vaccines probably caused the disorder, not that they certainly did. But the court opined that "the theory of vaccine related causation is scientifically unsupportable."
posted by bearwife at 3:32 PM PST - 120 comments

Entertaining video tutorial [Youtube, 10 min] of an iPhone app called Everyday Looper, a four-track audio recorder and mixer. (bonus track)
posted by knave at 1:28 PM PST - 34 comments

Gypsy Creams is dedicated to 1960's women's magazines - particularly the advertising - and is a fascinating insight into the issues of the day. Need to gain weight? Are you too hairy? Tired and depressed? Maybe you want to make your burnt finger worse. The answers are here, selected from the pages of magazines such as Woman's Own and Woman's Weekly. Gypsy Creams biscuits? Sorry, they're pretty rare these days.
posted by liquidindian at 1:09 PM PST - 18 comments

Asylum Sideshow presents several of the most bizarre performers they could find:
The Cow Song
Miss Nude Sword Swallower
Meathead Morgue
Rappin' KT
Gumby Girl
and Captain Pooty... [more inside]
posted by carsonb at 12:59 PM PST - 11 comments

Simon Singh: This is goodbye. Being sued for libel is not only ruinously expensive, writes Simon Singh, it takes over your whole life. Which is why this will be his last column. Previously.
posted by homunculus at 12:51 PM PST - 74 comments

Texas votes to adopt new education standards and curriculum designed to give history instruction a conservative slant. Among other vital corrections to the historical record, the school board: "managed to cut Thomas Jefferson from a list of figures whose writings inspired revolutions in the late 18th century and 19th century, replacing him with St. Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin and William Blackstone. (Jefferson is not well liked among the conservatives on the board because he coined the term “separation between church and state.”)
posted by saulgoodman at 12:42 PM PST - 125 comments

Tattúínárdælasaga (The Saga of the People of the Tattooine River Valley) is the Icelandic saga Star Wars was based on. So far five chapters have been transcribed.
posted by Kattullus at 12:10 PM PST - 44 comments

Visualising the internet is a treemap of the top 100 sites on the internet. It is part of the BBC's SuperPower, "a season of progammes exploring the power of the internet," which includes videos on "How the internet changed my life" and the radio drama "How to Make Your First Billion."
posted by HE Amb. T. S. L. DuVal at 12:06 PM PST - 15 comments

The massively talented Micky Jones of the Welsh rock band Man has passed away. A blazing guitarist and soulful singer...Get out the Rizlas for Man, Man, and more Man. (SYTLs)
posted by Liquidwolf at 11:51 AM PST - 17 comments

NPR's Planet Money has bought a toxic asset. As announced on their podcast Tuesday and on Morning Edition today, the team's five reporters pooled $1000 to buy a stake in over 2000 mortgages, with the (highly unlikely) profits going to charity. Listeners can track the asset's progress, suggest it a name, and even watch it personafied in a two minute video.
posted by l33tpolicywonk at 11:42 AM PST - 37 comments

Christoph Niemann makes clever use of the Google Maps aesthetic to create some interesting pictorials. [via] [previously]
posted by d1rge at 11:29 AM PST - 14 comments

Superhero Tragedy Porn Is Bad For Comics
posted by Artw at 11:19 AM PST - 79 comments

The winners of the Independent Game Festival Awards were announced last night. A few winners are playable now: the awesome Max and the Magic Marker won the Vision award with its whimsical drawing-based action; Closure, featuring creepy light-based puzzles, won for sound design; Continuity, a student-created puzzling platform game. Big winners Monaco and the visually stunning Limbo are only available in video form now, but are worth a look anyway. [Closure and Continuity are in Flash; Max is in Unity, but worth it]
posted by blahblahblah at 11:13 AM PST - 6 comments

Reginald Robinson won a MacArthur Fellowship grant in 2004 for his original ragtime compositions, but has found it difficult to reach the public. "Even with the MacArthur 'genius' title … I'm invisible." [more inside]
posted by Rory Marinich at 10:26 AM PST - 64 comments

Better Living Through Circuitry [trailer] is a 1999 documentary about rave culture. [Vodpod movie, 1h25m] [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 10:02 AM PST - 45 comments

Paris in 26 gigapixels is a stitching of 2346 single photos showing a very high-resolution panoramic view of the French capital (354159x75570 px). Dive into the image and visit Paris like never before! [more inside]
posted by i_cola at 8:17 AM PST - 41 comments

The late William Safire left behind a language-column vacancy that the NY Times has been filling with a rotating crew of language experts, some better than others. Now they've announced their choice for a permanent replacement, and it could hardly be better: Ben Zimmer, an actual linguist. Reading "On Language" will be slightly less enjoyable for us nitpickers but a lot more informative.
posted by languagehat at 7:38 AM PST - 30 comments

Merlin Olsen, NFL legend and TV star (Little House on the Prairie; Father Murphy), has passed away at 69 from mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer. As I knew him more from TV than from football, to me he will always be the gentle giant. [more inside]
posted by bwg at 7:07 AM PST - 29 comments

Continuing the story from Paparazzi, Telephone from Lady Gaga and Beyonce. [more inside]
posted by mccarty.tim at 7:05 AM PST - 213 comments

If you can’t move your face, can you still act with it? How plastic surgery and Botox is leading to change in acting style.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 6:54 AM PST - 72 comments

A South Korean couple meet online, make a real baby and neglect her -- to the point of starvation -- while raising a virtual child. [more inside]
posted by cedar at 6:48 AM PST - 34 comments

A Practical Guide to Musical Composition and Principles of Counterpoint - texts by composer Alan Belkin (quite a bit more to be found on his site).
posted by Wolfdog at 5:42 AM PST - 13 comments

Female-Fronted Punk Rock 1977-1989. A huge, 12 (!) disc, mix of punk rock sung by women.
posted by OmieWise at 4:46 AM PST - 42 comments

Relative to other schools, public-commuter and engineering schools grade harshly.... [This] may help explain why undergraduate students are increasingly disengaged from learning and why the US has difficulty filling its employment needs in engineering and technology.
posted by twoleftfeet at 3:36 AM PST - 112 comments

How are you feeling today? Are you energetic? Relaxed? Drunk? Maybe you're horny or lost in thought. Perhaps you're knitting, cooking, or doing some spring cleaning. Maybe you're simply untroubled. Whatever your mood, Stereomood will provide a soundtrack. (Warning: All links autoplay sound.) [more inside]
posted by Captain Cardanthian! at 11:52 PM PST - 35 comments

Documentary Heaven | Free Documentaries Online | Dokumentationen in Deutsch
posted by crunchland at 11:51 PM PST - 12 comments

High school prom cancelled for fear of lesbians.
posted by cronholio at 11:16 PM PST - 132 comments

Targeting the Good Cell: The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel covers the latest stem cell advances, built around a gripping 2008 series (1, 2, 3) about the competitive race to reprogram mature cells into functionally embryonic stem cells. [more inside]
posted by jjray at 9:19 PM PST - 2 comments

Often dismissed as a failed experiment, this oddity from Arthur Penn is a constantly surprising and enigmatic classic. Two years ahead of Bonnie and Clyde, this New Hollywood prototype is ragged and frantic, a skewed but thrilling attempt to rewrite established narrative form. [more inside]
posted by Joe Beese at 8:27 PM PST - 7 comments

Slate takes on signs and wayfinding. Part 1: The secret language of signs. Part II: Lost in Penn Station. Part III: Legible London. Part IV: Do you draw good maps? Part V: The war over exit signs. Part VI: Will GPS kill the sign?
posted by parudox at 7:38 PM PST - 41 comments

What's the most unique video game to be released in the past five years? Guitar Hero? Nah. DJ Hero? Uh-uh. Ribbon Hero. [more inside]
posted by armage at 7:04 PM PST - 30 comments

Friday Flash Fun: Redder is an exploration-based platformer by Auntie Pixelante. It's a little bit like VVVVVV, but with a red/green block switching mechanic instead of a gravity switching one.
posted by Rinku at 6:30 PM PST - 17 comments

Confessions of a Call Bear - "At 6-foot-3 and 245 pounds, he's a pretty big guy, though he "carries it well." His red hair is cut in a flattop, and he has a closely cropped beard, but he doesn't look particularly imposing." Rusty McMann is a 40something male escort.
posted by desjardins at 6:13 PM PST - 62 comments

Once-revered S.C. lawmaker freezes to death alone. Maybe it's OK to get in someone's business and force them to get help? A terrible way to go out.
posted by fixedgear at 5:25 PM PST - 50 comments

Get palette ideas from sites like GenoPal, generate color schemes with tools like Unsafe Color Match, put a color in and spit a palette out with Color Blender, or sharpen your color theory skills with The Meaning of Colours. These are all from the 50 Best Color Sites for Designers.
posted by netbros at 3:20 PM PST - 7 comments

Zie is the first person recognised by the state of NSW Australia to be neither man nor woman. Norrie is androgynous and the state government of NSW acknowledges it. Zie is a long time activist who has done a lot of work with the Sydney Gender Centre.
posted by ginky at 2:55 PM PST - 82 comments

When Jane Sellers moved to California in 1943 her sixteen year-old school pal, Hugh Hefner, began writing to her. Their friendship and correspondence endured for sixty years.
posted by gman at 2:48 PM PST - 19 comments

"You don't hear the words 'poodle,' 'tinfoil hat,' and 'First Amendment' in the same sentence often, but they are indeed linked in a classic Facebook melodrama." On February 8 Dale Blank created a Facebook page called 'Can this poodle wearing a tinfoil hat get more fans than Glenn Beck?.' He received 273,582 fans before Facebook stepped in and "publish blocked" the page on February 18. "That put the tin-hatted poodle at the center of a dispute over First Amendment free speech rights and censorship. There were virtual howls that Facebook was actively siding with Glen Beck over the Poodle, that perhaps someone at Facebook was siding with the conservatives, or at least had developed a hatred for left-wing sarcasm." [more inside]
posted by ericb at 2:03 PM PST - 98 comments

Conan O'Brien announced a tour via his new Twitter account today. Entitled "The Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on TV" tour, Conan picked 30 cities to travel to, but the demand has already been so great that additional dates are being added. The title references the fact that because of the terms of his exit agreement with NBC, he is prohibited from appearing in another television show until after September 1. Conan O'Brien's new Twitter account previously posted on MeFi. I'm guessing he's gotten the hang of it fairly quickly, given this was only announced via Twitter.
posted by questionsandanchors at 1:21 PM PST - 61 comments

Forget about cupcakes, meat's the thing. Somehow chopping up animals has worked its way into the hipster mainstream, creating a nexus of locavorism, animal protection, and transgression.
posted by mneekadon at 1:08 PM PST - 62 comments

"This flickr site is my way to share images that are rare or special in some way for the fans of Star Trek TOS - most of the images are digital scans and restorations from film frames I possess, some are my restored digital images from photos or film clips I have borrowed from others." Including exotic women, clapper boards, special effects, naked Gorns, between-filming breaks, and, of course, stalagmites . via
posted by Katemonkey at 1:00 PM PST - 19 comments

Sweet, sour, bitter, salty, umami, and.... fat? Dr. Russell Keast, an Austrailian scientist who studies "perceived flavour, consumer acceptance and preference of foods and nutrition," has conducted research exploring humans' apparent sixth taste perception: fat. The kicker? Sensitivity to the taste of fat was negatively correlated with fat intake and BMI. Dr. Keast discussed the results of his latest research with Slashfood, and The Sydney Morning Herald. (via) [more inside]
posted by sentient at 12:57 PM PST - 31 comments

Arcade Aid Challenge: 56 video games are hidden in the city. Find them. [more inside]
posted by rollbiz at 12:02 PM PST - 47 comments

How to iron a shirt. Everything is cooler in Japan. [more inside]
posted by chunking express at 11:58 AM PST - 97 comments

Former Second Daughter Liz Cheney (who, it should be noted, received her JD from The University of Chicago Law School in 1996) and her Keep America Safe 501(c) posted a video demanding that the Justice Department publicly release the names of its "Al Quaeda Seven," seven Justice employees who served as counsel for Guantanamo detainees. Reaction has been swift and fierce. [more inside]
posted by sallybrown at 11:45 AM PST - 114 comments

Hundreds of volunteers are needed to help create a line of light along the length of Hadrian's Wall to mark the purported 1600th anniversary of the departure from Britain of Roman legions under Constantine III. Organisers are looking for 500 people to help create the spectacle on 13 March, which will light up the wall from one end to the other. Each of the volunteer "illuminators" will be responsible for one of the 500 individual points of light that will be placed at 820ft (250m) intervals along the route of the 84-mile (135km) Hadrian's Wall Path National Trail. There is something gloriously pointless about this, although it will undoubtedly be a spectacle. One has to ask though - apart from building a fucking big wall to keep the Jocks out, what have the Romans ever done for us……?
posted by MajorDundee at 11:45 AM PST - 16 comments

Doctor Who Alignment Chart (single image link)
posted by Artw at 11:03 AM PST - 72 comments

Will Critics Spoil the Secreting End of Remember Me? The movie opens tomorrow, March 12th. The Village Voice and New York Magazine have already spilled the beans. [ALL LINKS SPOILERIFFIC LIKE "WHOA!"]
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 9:14 AM PST - 248 comments

Revolution OS [1h25m Google Video] is a 2001 documentary which traces the history of GNU, Linux, and the open source and free software movements. It features several interviews with prominent hackers and entrepreneurs (and hackers-cum-entrepreneurs), including Richard Stallman, Michael Tiemann, Linus Torvalds, Larry Augustin, Eric S. Raymond, Bruce Perens, Frank Hecker and Brian Behlendorf. [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 8:57 AM PST - 68 comments

Violins + Dance = LXD The LXD (the Legion of Extraordinary Dancers) electrify the TED2010 stage with an emerging global street-dance culture, revved up by the Internet. SYTYCD
posted by MechEng at 8:04 AM PST - 15 comments

Cycles. Music and animation by Cyriak. [more inside]
posted by Potomac Avenue at 7:05 AM PST - 16 comments

What do you do with a surplus of breast milk? If you're Daniel Angerer, you make cheese. When fans of Daniel Angerer's blog read about his attempt to create cheese from his wife Lori Mason's breast milk, they demanded a sample at his restaurant Klee Brasserie. According to the chef, it tastes like cow's milk cheese and goes well with Riesling.
posted by amro at 6:11 AM PST - 132 comments

Incredibox -- a capella beat-boxing flash toy [more inside]
posted by HeroZero at 4:17 AM PST - 26 comments

The Grateful Dead is officially history: they're the subject of a new exhibit at the New York Historical Society. Ironically, though, it's the Dead’s influence on the business world that may turn out to be one of the most significant parts of its legacy. Without intending to—while intending, in fact, to do just the opposite—the band pioneered ideas and practices that were subsequently embraced by corporate America. Management Secrets of the Grateful Dead.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 3:45 AM PST - 72 comments

Arnold Schwarzenegger Complete Japanese Commercial Filmography (SLYT)
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 2:39 AM PST - 20 comments

Two Icons of American Indie Culture And Their Shortlived Romance--Summarized in a Comic Strip by Lynda Barry. Inimitable Lynda Barry's "Head Lice and My Worst Boyfriend" story. Jeez, who WAS this guy? Oh...I see...
posted by The ____ of Justice at 12:40 AM PST - 46 comments

Of course lots of not-so-safe-for-work things show up on ChatRoulette. What else can you expect when you offer anonymous access to strangers' webcams? But ChatRoulette Map makes the "service" not-so-anonymous by plotting screen shots on a map based on IP addresses. (via) [more inside]
posted by nbergus at 10:38 PM PST - 44 comments

Two live performances by Robyn, 2008 in LA (54 minutes) and 2005 in Lund, Sweden (27 minutes). The 2008 concert can also be viewed song by song. For a bitesize introduction to the Swedish pop singer, check out the quite extensive video section on her site. Also, Robyn on BBC quiz show Nevermind the Buzzcocks. [Robyn previously on MetaFilter]
posted by Kattullus at 10:14 PM PST - 14 comments

20th-Century American Bestsellers (novels). Browse the database: The Hunt for Red October - Watership Down - &c.
posted by stbalbach at 9:54 PM PST - 8 comments

Vintage German illustrations, poster art, and advertisments.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 7:54 PM PST - 12 comments

This isn't your grandpa's PEEK and POKE. Real-time graphical hacking of the Commodore 64 system.
posted by loquacious at 7:35 PM PST - 45 comments

The Secret Origin of Windows, recollections of the development and release of Windows 1.0 and 2.0 by its project manager Tandy Trower (via)
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 6:26 PM PST - 75 comments

Nella Cordelia: A Birth Story (warning: sound)
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 5:49 PM PST - 27 comments

Anarchism and Science Fiction: A Reading List
posted by brundlefly at 5:10 PM PST - 27 comments

Though the District of Columbia just welcomed its first same-sex married couple under its new marriage equality law, neighboring Virginia is dealing with the possibility of further restrictions to GLBT residents. The newly-minted state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli is advising (read: instructing) Virginia's public colleges and universities that, because the state assembly has refused to add sexuality to its classes of discrimination, that for public colleges and universities to use discrimination policies which include gays and lesbians would be beyond their authority. Gov. McDonnell rescinded previous executive orders from Govs. Kaine and Warner in order to remove sexuality from the list of discrimination protections, but today responded to the controversy by directing state agencies not to discriminate against gays. And it all has something to do with Fortune 500 Company Northrop Grumman.
posted by Navelgazer at 4:21 PM PST - 56 comments

The Shining Cuckoo Clock. The clock mimics the moment from the film, and every hour Jack breaks through the door and the famous line "Here’s Johnny" plays followed by a scream by Shining co-star Shelly Duvall.
posted by (Arsenio) Hall and (Warren) Oates at 3:59 PM PST - 23 comments

The man with no identity. [via]
posted by Caduceus at 3:55 PM PST - 31 comments

"He was so high," says Lucille Gathers Cheeseboro, two decades later. "And then when he came down, he was so low." Hank Gathers, remembered twenty years later. [more inside]
posted by NolanRyanHatesMatches at 3:49 PM PST - 14 comments

Oscar winner Jean-Xavier de Lestrade's TV documentary series The Staircase can be watched in full on Google Video. It chronicles the defense strategy of Michael Peterson, the novelist who in 2001 was accused of murdering his wife, who he said had fallen down a flight of stairs at their grand house in Durham, N.C. Links inside. [more inside]
posted by AceRock at 3:46 PM PST - 19 comments

The war in desktop publishing began in 1985 in the shadowy hallways of offices, raging for decades and leaving scores wounded as first one king, then another was toppled. Today the current leader gleefully celebrates its victory, but on the horizon, a possible challenger looms.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 2:51 PM PST - 95 comments

What If Everybody in Canada Flushed At Once? The water utility in Edmonton, EPCOR, published a graph of water consumption last week. By now you’ve probably heard that up to 80% of Canadians were watching the Olympics gold medal hockey game between Canada and the USA. So, it stands to reason that they’d all go pee between periods. More from The Globe and Mail.
posted by netbros at 2:24 PM PST - 56 comments

Mimi. Carmen. Violetta. Cio-Cio San. Tosca. Lucia di Lammermoor. Manon. Anna Nicole.
posted by greekphilosophy at 1:41 PM PST - 17 comments

Last week, economist Simon Johnson (his blog; previously on MeFi) spoke at the Roosevelt Institute about the failure to regulate the financial industry, and the doomsday cycle of our economy (via).
posted by HP LaserJet P10006 at 1:25 PM PST - 4 comments

The conventional wisdom says that in the best of circumstances, a male beginner weight trainee cannot hope to gain more than a maximum of 2 pounds of muscle per month. Enter Mark Rippetoe, author and gym owner, and his 20-year-old trainee Zach Evetts. Zach gained 2.84 pounds of muscle a week. In his article "The Novice Effect," (PDF) Rippetoe explains Zach's results and why they're not surprising. [more inside]
posted by ludwig_van at 1:07 PM PST - 108 comments

A database engineer considers marriage. Starts with heterosexual monogamy and eventually produces a schema that can handle...well, some interesting arrangements.
posted by d. z. wang at 12:44 PM PST - 53 comments

El fin del mundo
posted by DU at 12:02 PM PST - 41 comments

A bill to prohibit the use of salt by restaurant kitchens has been introduced to the New York Senate.

Conservatives are not amused.
Well, who would be?

The sponsor Felix Ortiz has already made some controversial proposals
posted by hexatron at 11:03 AM PST - 182 comments

The Psychology of Video Games. Jamie Madigan has a Ph.D. in psychology. He's also a Gamer with a capital G, has written gaming strategy guides and countless game reviews, and follows the gaming scene like some people follow baseball. In his blog, Jamie tells you "why things are" when it comes to game psychology. Conan the Loss Averse Barbarian. How Reciprocity Yields Bumper Crops in Farmville. Phat Loot and Neurotransmitters in World of Warcraft. [more inside]
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 10:46 AM PST - 57 comments

Google maps now has bike routes.
posted by edbles at 10:45 AM PST - 47 comments

Chemically Driven Carbon-Nanotube-Guided Thermopower Waves (VIDEO) are "a new scientific area for research" and may be able to provide 100 times more energy by weight than a standard lithium-ion battery.
posted by HE Amb. T. S. L. DuVal at 10:31 AM PST - 19 comments

Harmony: A procedural drawing tool made in JavaScript
posted by Rory Marinich at 7:34 AM PST - 62 comments

How Facebook Was Founded
posted by jefficator at 6:46 AM PST - 60 comments

80s teen idol and film star Corey Haim, has died in Los Angeles of an apparent overdose.
posted by griphus at 6:01 AM PST - 173 comments

BRIDGTON, Maine, February 27 (ESPN) -- It takes a certain kind of confidence for an athlete to wear a cape. You can't just be good. You have to be amazing, as in world champion-caliber amazing. Otherwise, you run the risk of looking ridiculous. Luckily, Christian Housh, better known as Tiger Claw, proved himself worthy of a world title. "I can't say I ever had any dreams of being a four square champion until I found out about the world championships of four square," Housh said. "Then the dream came alive."

Bonus: incomplete list of cool rules. Previously on MetaFilter. Previously at a MetaFilter meetup. Get well soon, klangklangston!
posted by not_on_display at 5:06 AM PST - 14 comments

8 Unconvential Ways to Be "Buried." We've all heard about strange practices surrounding the remains of the deceased, but even I (who am morbid to a fault) hadn't been aware of half of these.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 5:04 AM PST - 61 comments

When Washington D.C. began licensing same-sex marriages last week, this story came out on the paper edition of the Washington Post with this photo on the front page. (WARNING: the photo depicts two men kissing) The paper received complaints from upset readers, some of whom canceled their Post subscription. Andrew Alexander, the Post's ombudsman, responds: "There was a time, after court-ordered integration, when readers complained about front-page photos of blacks mixing with whites. Today, photo images of same-sex couples capture the same reality of societal change."
posted by Baldons at 4:18 AM PST - 84 comments

This post is about two recent(ish) strands of British dance music. [more inside]
posted by Dim Siawns at 3:03 AM PST - 19 comments

Raffaella Traniello (Vimeo profile) is an educator and multimedia enthusiast who describes herself as "Animation lover. Linux user. Hungry for clever beauty." She's also committed to bringing free/open source software to the classroom. Her efforts are remarkable in that she achieves pleasant results with community-developed software and involves school children in the production process. Since many users of Linux video editing software -- especially the Cinelerra software package -- are quickly turned off by its opaque interface, Raffaella has also created Cinelerra for Grandma, in which she covers everything from the basics to more difficult subjects like animation.
posted by circular at 1:49 AM PST - 26 comments

Ever wonder what professions top the list as the most guilty of infidelity? A dating site for married people surveyed all of their new members last year. Of the 1.9 million folks who signed up, female teachers and male physicians topped the list for their genders.
posted by three blind mice at 12:21 AM PST - 58 comments

You know the rules ansd so do I. Now dance!
posted by vrakatar at 11:15 PM PST - 19 comments

The driver software for the Energizer DUO USB battery charger contains a back door. It permits a remote user full access to your Windows system. [more inside]
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 9:16 PM PST - 124 comments

Cats have toilets. Dogs have toilets. Even rats have toilets... but according to the World Toilet Organization, 2.5 billion *people* worldwide still do not have access to sanitation. Peepoo (YouTube video), developed by Swedish entrepreneur, architect and professor Anders Wilhemson, is a new biodegradable single-use toilet that could help grow crops (New York Times). A layer of urea crystals in the bag kills off disease producing pathogens and breaks the waste down... into fertilizer. If you prefer patent-free alternatives, Joseph Jenkins offers Humanure. You can get his Humanure Compost Toilet System Instruction Manual (Direct Download PDF) free of charge. All you need is a bucket, cover materials (sawdust, rice husks or coffee grounds) and the knowledge in his handbook. Peepoo or Humanure? Poo decide.
posted by stringbean at 9:05 PM PST - 18 comments

Ralph Steadman’s Alice in Wonderland. Salvador Dali’s Alice In Wonderland.
posted by mediareport at 9:02 PM PST - 16 comments

Droops and 8-balls in this man's army shouldn't take unnecessary chances with their lives. Illustrated by Walt Ditzen. [more inside]
posted by tellurian at 8:34 PM PST - 6 comments

It looked legit and not entirely out of the realm of possibility in today's heated political climate: an anti-gay resolution being introduced in Utah to expel homosexuals from the state. Except that it was an entire, elaborate hoax courtesy of the Yes Men.
posted by Leezie at 8:22 PM PST - 28 comments

Blosics 2 is a physics game. Throw blocks off the stage by shooting balls at them. There are many types of blocks, there are many types of balls. 30 levels to finish. (flash, music/sound effects optional) [more inside]
posted by crunchland at 7:15 PM PST - 26 comments

Stray Cats in Tokyo as seen by professional photographers. [more inside]
posted by misozaki at 5:45 PM PST - 30 comments

Once upon a time, before boats had motors, the only way to move vessels up the Shennong River (a tributary to the Yangtze River near Badong, Enshi) was for labourers, known as River Trackers, to haul them by hand using heavy ropes along a dangerously narrow ledge hacked from solid rock. And while naked (slightly NSFW). [more inside]
posted by bwg at 4:49 PM PST - 27 comments

Disney restyles "Rapunzel" to appeal to boys. Disney is wringing the pink out of its princess movies. After the less-than-fairy-tale results for its most recent animated release, "The Princess and the Frog," executives at the Burbank studio believe they know why the acclaimed movie came up short at the box office. Brace yourself: Boys didn't want to see a movie with "princess" in the title. Dear Disney: Boys Aren't Stupid, but renaming "Rapunzel" is.
posted by crossoverman at 3:55 PM PST - 113 comments

Historian Tony Judt has been the subject of MetaFilter posts before. He has also written an essay on his struggle with ALS that has been debated here. However, it may have taken an article in the mass-market magazine New York to put his race to complete his latest book into perspective.
posted by huskerdont at 3:47 PM PST - 6 comments

What a pretty little outfit, good girl! Look at you, wow, you're not just a pretty face! Now come over here, stand close to me.
posted by Meatbomb at 3:46 PM PST - 47 comments

Jhonen Vasquez best known for his comic book Johnny the Homicidal Maniac [Google Book] and his Nickelodeon show Invader Zim has decided to post Zim "Facts" throughout the month of March. [more inside]
posted by quin at 3:16 PM PST - 35 comments

Erik Malmstrom, veteran, writes an opinion piece for the New York Times about the purpose of war movies Malmstrom talks about The Hurt Locker and The Messenger, as well as the documentary Restrepo. He argues to give the Hollywood films some slack, yet he argues that the documentary provides "reality" because it operates without the Hollywood filter.
posted by la_scribbler at 2:50 PM PST - 11 comments

Cultivated Play: Farmville
posted by brundlefly at 2:38 PM PST - 56 comments

I mean, in these days of indoor plumbing, the toilet is a naturally potent metaphor for everyday repression, for all the bile and rage and memories and sins and other impure thoughts and unclean urges that can't always kept down or flushed away. Every once in a while when the psychological plumbing gets clogged, the load of excrement becomes more than one's psychological pipes can handle, and the shit all comes bubbling back up from below and spews out onto the surface.

A survey of plumbing in the movies. Wee bit NSFW in both word and image.
posted by kipmanley at 1:19 PM PST - 33 comments

Blog: Daily Plays. "Reading a play a day and writing about what I read."
posted by grumblebee at 1:09 PM PST - 4 comments

Gendercide, or sex-selective abortion aided by female ifanticide, is soberingly common in coutries where a strong cultural and economic preference for male children exists: 100 million women are "missing" in the Asia-Pacific region, 85% of them in India and China alone. [more inside]
posted by halogen at 12:29 PM PST - 100 comments

Stefania Rotolo performs live! _{(single-link incomprehensible YouTube video circa 1979)}
posted by flatluigi at 11:32 AM PST - 26 comments

Now you can own your own pothole......
posted by MajorDundee at 11:01 AM PST - 18 comments

The Shannon number? Skewes' number? Graham's number? Please. When you're ready to get serious, here are some truly large numbers. (previously, but with dead links)
posted by Joe Beese at 10:16 AM PST - 45 comments

"Feel sorry for the people who never got to see us," he once said. "We were good." The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City faces a $200,000 shortfall for 2009. The museum is battling both the recession and its own backers, as new management tries to distance itself from founder Buck O'Neil, a move that induced long-time supporter Joe Posnanski to announce that he would "never set foot in there again." Will this chapter of baseball history be forgotten? Or can Strat-O-Matic save the Negro Leagues? (Previously on MetaFilter: Buck O'Neil denied a spot in the Baseball Hall of Fame.)
posted by escabeche at 9:26 AM PST - 16 comments

The Alban Grimm exhibit, `Text of the Apocalypse as Graphics,' displayed at the recent TUG'99 meeting in Vancouver, shows what happens when a typographer-cum-graphic artist is introduced to computer programs and finds that inputting code can lead to outputting incredible visual results.
posted by vostok at 9:08 AM PST - 10 comments

Way Down Under The Ground. The tale of Orpheus's journey through the Underworld has been retold so many times, on stage, in film. Tennessee Williams saw it as Orpheus Descending. Neil Gaiman took the myth on in the pages of Sandman. Today, we have Hadestown, a new album from Anais Mitchell. Mitchell recorded "Hades & Persephone" for a previous release, but Hadestown is a fully-realized folk opera, five years in the making, a collaborative effort featuring contributions from Greg Brown, Ani Difranco, The Haden Tripletts and Justin Vernon (the voice of Bon Iver). [more inside]
posted by grabbingsand at 8:33 AM PST - 18 comments

The judge-umpire analogy has a long historical pedigree. [more inside]
posted by shakespeherian at 7:34 AM PST - 5 comments

Celebrity chef Beppe Bigazzi upset viewers and his host with his recipe for "cat casserole", and has been suspended from the program [Italian]. Inhabitants of Northern Italy, particularly those of Vicenza, are still nicknamed "magnagati" ('cat eaters') as a derogatory term in Venetian. Taking a clue from the Aboriginal population, cooking feral cats has even been proposed in Alice Springs, Australia, to curb the out-of-control feral population. [more inside]
posted by atomicmedia at 6:39 AM PST - 97 comments

Your favourite comic sucks. "The problem is basically this: Randall does not write jokes, as such. He writes inside jokes."
posted by mippy at 4:16 AM PST - 227 comments

"The Cove" , about the annual dolphins slaughter in Taiji, Japan, won the Academy Award for Best Documentary. However, the movie has only been screened once in Japan, during the Tokyo International Film Festival in October. Reaction from the town is a combination of "We're not doing anything wrong" and "It's none of your business what we do" with the added refrain of "We're protecting our cultural traditions" which is already familiar to anti-whaling activists and the like. Due to a media blackout, most Japanese people don't even know the hunt happens, but will the movie's increasingly high profile (It's even becoming a TV show) and the negative publicity force a change? More details on the making and content of the movie. [more inside]
posted by donkeymon at 3:22 AM PST - 91 comments

After being caught drunk driving on his way back from a gay night club, consistently anti-gay California State Senator Roy Ashburn has publicly come out as being gay.
posted by molecicco at 2:43 AM PST - 160 comments

It's been called the most beautiful theorem in all of mathematics. [more inside]
posted by empath at 12:43 AM PST - 48 comments

"Charlie Rose" by Samuel Beckett was recently posted in a separate thread, but it's hardly the first example of filmmaking based on reusing footage out of context. Among the more recent examples of the genre are Jandrew Edits (containing footage from Star Trek: the Next Generation) and the Japanese Okusan Domon Desu (and the fourth episode. It may help to have seen the original G Gundam too). It's also been the basis for a couple of feature-length, real-theater-type movies, including Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid and Kung Pow! Enter the Fist (Wiki links), though in those cases, to be fair, they had new footage filmed to tie the bits together. Naturally, the technique tends to lend itself to comedy.
posted by DoctorFedora at 12:40 AM PST - 13 comments

The Goon Show was a highly popular and immensely influential radio show on the BBC in the 1950s featuring Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe and Spike Milligan. They would sometimes do live readings of episodes, here's a video recording of The Whistling Spy Enigma (parts 1, 2, 3) and a much later recording of Tales of Men's Shirts (parts 1, 2, 3). The first features Ray Ellington, musical director of the Goon Show, and the second John Cleese, who, like his fellow Pythons, was a huge fan of The Goon Show growing up. In the 50s BBC turned The Goon Show into a TV show with puppets, called Telegoons. A number of shows exist online: The Lurgi Strikes Britain (1, 2), The Nadger Plague (1, 2), Captain Seagoon RN (1, 2), Tales of Montmartre (1, 2), The First Albert Memorial to the Moon (1, 2), The Hastings Flyer (1, 2), The Affair of the Lone Banana (1, 2), The Africa Ship Canal (1, 2), The Booted Gorilla (1, 2), The Ascent of Mount Everest (1, 2), The Dreaded Batter Pudding Hurler of Bexhill on Sea (1, 2), Fort Knight (1, 2), The Terrible Revenge of Fred Fu Manchu (1, 2), The Lost Colony (1, 2) and, finally, back where we first began, the Telegoons version of The Whistling Spy Enigma (1, 2).
posted by Kattullus at 10:16 PM PST - 43 comments

Shower of Aid Brings Flood of Progress - "An experiment that is bombarding a Kenyan town of 65,000 with health care, education, and job training seems to be achieving its goal of rapidly lifting people out of poverty, but can the results be magnified?" [more inside]
posted by kliuless at 7:42 PM PST - 6 comments

A sublime prank on an SNL audience: Zach Galifianakis shaves his beard (SLHP).
posted by Chinese Jet Pilot at 6:58 PM PST - 48 comments